Iterative Learning Control Design for a Class of Mobile Robots

Abstract

The paper presents the design of iterative learning control for a class of mobile robots. This control strategy allows driving the considered system, which executes the same control task in trials, to the predefined reference within the consecutive iterations by improving the control signal gradually. The control problem being stated concerns a mobile robot, and hence, its kinematic model is presented. The considered model is nonlinear as it is related to the robot orientation angle. Thus, the linearization strategy is introduced by dividing the range of possible orientation angles to four quarters and then deriving a linear parameter-varying system. As a distinct research topic, the feasible/optimal number selection of polytope vertices of each LPV submodel are considered. Next, for the resulting bank of models, the switched iterative control scheme is transformed into closed-loop differential linear repetitive processes. Subsequently, based on the fact that ensuring the so-called stability along the trial is equivalent to the convergence of the original model output to the predefined reference, an appropriate stabilization condition is applied in order to compute the feedback controller gains. The overall effectiveness and performance of the proposed methodology are evaluated through comprehensive simulation examples.