Reference Tracking of a Nonholonomic Mobile Robot using Sensor Fusion Techniques and Linear Control

Abstract

This paper presents the control design of a nonholonomic mobile robot with differential drive using control strategies on a linearized space state error model. In this case, a diagonal multi-variable model is obtained for which a decentralized PI controller may be designed. In this paper, PI tuning is performed through a LQR problem whose feedback gains are set as the proportional gain of the PI controller. The use of an Inertial Measuring Unit (IMU) allows for a precise posture feedback by using a Kalman Filter on the output of the sensors. For such purpose, a Sensor Fusion technique is also needed in order to combine multiple sensor output so that physical limitations of each sensor may be compensated.