Switched control of a nonholonomic mobile robot

We present a switched control algorithm to stabilize a car-like mobile robot which possesses velocity level nonholonomic constraint. The control approach rests on splitting the system into several second-order subsystems and then stabilizing the system sequentially using finite-time controllers, finally resulting in the mobile robot being moved from one point to another point. State dependent switching control is employed in which the controllers switches on a thin surface in the state-space. Robustness analysis is presented by redefining the switching signal using relaxed switching surface. Both, non-robust and robust controllers are validated through numerical simulation. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.