Dynamic Parameterization for Path Following Control

ABSTRACTPath following is a basic skill for robots in industrial use. Since the objective of path following is to make a robot follow the reference path, the velocity of the robot or the timing of the motion does not need to be strictly controlled. In this paper, the reference path is defined as a function of the parameter that has dynamics. Using this parameter, we can define the contour error, which is the error that enables us to measure the distance from the reference path to the configuration of the robot. Although the contour error is suitable for use in path following, the dynamics of the parameter contain singular points at which the dynamics cannot be defined. In order to overcome this difficulty, globally defined dynamics are introduced, and two dynamics are integrated with a switching scheme. In this paper, the asymptotic stability of the whole system is proved theoretically. Computer simulation results also show the effectiveness of the method.