Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T08:30:31.340Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stable contour-following control of wheeled mobile robots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2009

Juan Marcos Toibero ,
Flavio Roberti  and
Ricardo Carelli
Juan Marcos Toibero*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Automática – Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. San Martín Oeste 1109 – J5400ARL, San Juan, Argentina. E-mail: froberti@inaut.unsj.edu.ar, rcarelli@inaut.unsj.edu.ar
Flavio Roberti
Affiliation:
Instituto de Automática – Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. San Martín Oeste 1109 – J5400ARL, San Juan, Argentina. E-mail: froberti@inaut.unsj.edu.ar, rcarelli@inaut.unsj.edu.ar
Ricardo Carelli
Affiliation:
Instituto de Automática – Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. San Martín Oeste 1109 – J5400ARL, San Juan, Argentina. E-mail: froberti@inaut.unsj.edu.ar, rcarelli@inaut.unsj.edu.ar
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mtoibero@inaut.unsj.edu.ar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper presents a continuous wall-following controller for wheeled mobile robots based on odometry and distance information. The reference for this controller is the desired distance from the robot to the wall and allows the robot to follow straight wall contour as well as smoothly varying wall contours by including the curvature of the wall into the controller. The asymptotic stability of the control system is proved using a Lyapunov analysis. The controller is designed so as to avoid saturation of the angular velocity command to the robot. A novel switching scheme is also proposed that allows the robot to follow discontinuous contours allowing the robotic system to deal with typical problems of continuous wall-following controllers such as open corners and possible collisions. This strategy overcomes these instances by switching between dedicated behavior-based controllers. The stability of the switching control system is discussed by considering Lyapunov concepts. The proposed control systems are verified experimentally in laboratory and office environments to show the feasibility and good performance of the control algorithms.

Keywords

Autonomous navigationSwitched systemsMobile robotsCommon Lyapunov function
Type
Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Arkin, R. C., Behavior-based Robotics (MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1998).Google Scholar
2.Boada, M. J. L., Rodriguez, F. J., Barber, R. and Salichs, M. A., “A Control System Based on Reactive Skills for Autonomous Mobile Robots,” IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics ICAR, Coimbra, Portugal (2003).Google Scholar
3.Braunstingl, R. and Ezkerra, J. M., “Fuzzy Logic Wall Following of a Mobile Robot based on the Concept of General Perception,” IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics ICAR, Sant Feliu de Gíxols, Catalonia, Spain (1995) pp. 367–376.Google Scholar
4.Wang, M. and Liu, J., “Autonomous Robot Navigation Using Fuzzy Logic Controller,” International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, Shangai, China (2004) pp. 26–29.Google Scholar
5.Ando, Y. and Yuta, S., “A reactive wall-following algorithm and its behaviors of an autonomous mobile robot with sonar ring,” J. Robot. Mech. 8 (1), 33–39 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Fazli, S. and Kleeman, L., “Simultaneous landmark classification, localization and map building for an advanced sonar ring,” Robotica 25, 283–296 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Borenstein, J. and Koren, Y., “Real-time obstacle avoidance for fast mobile robots,” IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 19 (5), 1179–1187 (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Zhang, Z., Sarkar, N. and Yun, X., “Supervisory Control of a Mobile Robot for Agile Motion Coordination,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA, Columbus, OH, USA (2004) pp. 2196–2203.Google Scholar
9.van Turennout, P. and Hounderd, G., “Following a Wall with a Mobile Robot Using Ultrasonic Sensors,” Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Raleigh, NC, USA (1992) vol 2, pp. 1451–1456.Google Scholar
10.Bicho, E., “Detecting, Representing and Following Walls based on Low-level Distance Sensors,” Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Neural Computation, Berlin, Germany (2000).Google Scholar
11.Edlinger, T. and von Puttkamer, E., “Exploration of an Indoor-Environment by an Autonomous Mobile Robot,” IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems IROS (2004) vol 2, pp. 1278–1284.Google Scholar
12.Brawn, R. and Hwang, P., Introduction to Random Signals and Applied Kalman Filtering, 3rd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997) pp. 371–375.Google Scholar
13.Toibero, J. M., Carelli, R. and Kuchen, B., “Wall-Following Stable Control for Wheeled Mobile Robots,” International IFAC 8th Symposium on Robot Control SYROCO, Bologna, Italy (2006b).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Kelly, R. and Carelli, R., “A class of nonlinear PD-type for robot manipulator,” J. Robot. Syst. 13 (12), 793–802 (1996).3.0.CO;2-Q>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Toibero, J. M., Carelli, R. and Kuchen, B., “A Stable Switched Contour-following Controller for Wheeled Mobile Robots,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA, Orlando, FL, USA (2006a).Google Scholar
16.Liberzon, D., Switching in Systems and Control (Birkhauser, Boston, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Branicky, M., “Multiple Lyapunov Functions and other analysis tools for switched and hybrid systems,” IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 43 (4), 475–482 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Toibero, J. M., Carelli, R. and Kuchen, B., “Switching Control of Mobile Robots for Autonomous Navigation in Unknown Environments,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA, Roma, Italy (2007) pp. 1974–1979.Google Scholar
19.Jung, S., Jeon, P. and Hsia, T. C., “Contour tracking of an unknown planar object by regulating force for mobile robot navigation,” Robotica 25, 297–305 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Everett, H. R., Gilbreath, G. A., Heath-Pastore, T. A. and Laird, R. T., “Controlling Multiple Security Robots in a Warehouse Environment,” AIAA-NASA Conference on Intelligent Robots, Houston, Houston, TX, USA (1994) pp. 93–102.Google Scholar
21.Garrido, S., Moreno, L., Blanco, D. and Munoz, M. L., “Sensor-based global planning for mobile robot navigation,” Robotica 25, 189–199 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Arkin, R. C., “Reactive control as a substrate for telerobotic system,” IEEE AES Syst. Mag. 24–31 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Vidyasagar, M., Nonlinear Systems Analysis, 2nd ed. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1993).Google Scholar
24.Vu, L. and Liberzon, D., “Common Lyapunov Functions for families of commuting nonlinear systems,” Syst. Control Lett. 54, 405–416 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Mancilla-Aguilar, J. L., “A condition for stability of switched nonlinear systems,” IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 45 (11), 2077–2079 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26.Liberzon, D. and Morse, A. S., “Basic problems in stability and design of switched systems,” IEEE Control Syst. Mag. 19 (5), 57–70 (1999).Google Scholar