Constrained Directions Method For Stabilization Of Mobile Robots With Input And State Constraints

This paper introduces a novel control design method for stabilization of input constrained non-holonomic wheeled systems. Important classes of mobile robots can be controlled by the proposed method, namely differential drive robots and car like systems where certain constraints are imposed on the system inputs and states. The proposed control is based on the recently developed Constrained Directions Method (CDM). CDM guarantees stabilization and preservation of the constraints on the inputs and provides control over the transient performance of robot. Moreover, it has been shown that CDM has a built-in preventive measure against wheel slip due to the inverse proportionality of robot forward velocity to the curvature of the path. Simulation results are used to show the validity of the proposed stabilizing control and to compare the performance of CDM with several well-known methods from the literature.