Nonlinear tracking control of a car-like mobile robot via dynamic feedback linearization

Abstract

Trajectory tracking is an important behaviour for mobile robots. This paper addresses the nonlinear trajectory tracking control problem for a nonholonomic car-like mobile robot with a constrained state. Compared with the existing works on the nonholonomic car-like mobile robots, the state constraint is emphasized in this work. The controllability of the system under the state constraint is checked firstly from the sense of nonlinear geometric control. A nonlinear tracking controller is then achieved by taking advantage of the dynamic feedback linearization technique. Moreover, the obtained controller can be exploited to simultaneously solve both the tracking and regulation problems of the car-like mobile robot with the constrained state. The effectiveness of the proposed control law to trajectory tracking control is demonstrated by simulation results.