Qualitative evaluation of a PID controller for autonomous mobile robot navigation implemented in an FPGA card

Abstract

This paper presents a new quantitative and qualitative approach for the design and implementation of a PID controller for autonomous mobile robot navigation. The paper also presents a simple and inexpensive method of designing, implementing, and evaluating the performance of the PID controller. The PID controller was first designed and simulated in Simulink. Then a FPGA card was used to build the PID controller in combination with a Basic Stamp microcontroller that is mainly used to perform I/O processing, sensor fusion, and data acquisition tasks. Finally, the performance of the PID controller, used to control the robot's navigation, was evaluated in real environment situations using a rubric. Results demonstrated that the proposed approach provides a simplified and inexpensive method to design, implement, and evaluate the performance of controllers for mobile robot applications.