Observer-based adaptive leader-following formation control for non-holonomic mobile robots

Abstract

This study considers the leader-following formation problem for the nonholonomic mobile robots, where the dynamics of the leader robot is unknown to the follower. First, the leader-following formation is transformed into a special trajectory tracking. Then neural network observer by the follower robot is designed to estimate the dynamics of the leader robot and based on multiple sliding surface technique control laws are designed for the follower robot to track the leader robot in the desired separation and bearing. The efficiency of the control law design is illustrated by formal proof and simulation results. Finally, conclusions are discussed.