Adaptive sliding mode tracking control for nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots with finite time convergence

Abstract

This paper investigates the finite-time tracking problem for nonholonomic mobile robots despite of unknown system disturbances. In the proposed tracking control, a novel sliding mode controller is given at torques level such that both the position and the orientation tracking errors convergence to zero within finite time. In particular, by employing the adaptive method during the robot's moving process, a fast variable is obtained to compensate for the unknown disturbance. Based on the Lyapunov stability analysis, it can be showed the finite time convergence in both reaching and sliding phase is achieved, and all closed-loop signals are uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.