Path tracking control of non-holonomic wheeled mobile robot with skidding and slipping

This study presents an adaptive sliding mode control approach for the trajectory tracking problem of wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with unknown skidding and slipping. Skidding and slipping are regarded as disturbances in the dynamic model to consider them easily. First, a kinematic controller is introduced for the wheeled mobile robot. Secondly, the adaptive sliding-mode dynamic controller is proposed to make the actual velocity of the mobile robot attain the desired velocity command, even if disturbances occur. The proposed controller compensates for unknown skidding and slipping and can remove the chattering phenomenon in the sliding mode control. Using Lyapunov theory, the system stability and the convergence of the tracking errors to zero are proven. Simulations results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in comparison with a kinematic/torque controller.