Kinematics, Localization and Control of Differential Drive Mobile Robot

Abstract

The present work focuses on Kinematics, Localization and closed loop motion control of a differential drive mobile robot which is capable of navigating to a desired goal location in an obstacle free static indoor environment. Two trajectory planning approaches are made (i) the robot is rotated to eliminate orientation error and then translate to overcome distance error (ii) Both rotational and translational motion is given to the robot to overcome orientation and distance error simultaneously. Localization is estimated by integrating the robot movement in a fixed sampling frequency. The control law is based on kinematics model which provides updated reference speed to the high frequency PID control of DC motor. Stability of proposed control law is validated by Lyapunov Criterion. Both experimental and simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the achieved control algorithms and their efficient implementation on a two wheeled differential drive mobile robot using an 8-bit microcontroller.