Distributed finite-time trajectory tracking control for multiple nonholonomic mobile robots with uncertainties and external disturbances

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the distributed finite-time trajectory tracking control for a group of nonholonomic mobile robots with time-varying unknown parameters and external disturbances. At first, the tracking error system is derived for each mobile robot with the aid of a global invertible transformation, which consists of two subsystems, one is a first-order subsystem and another is a second-order subsystem. Then, the two subsystems are studied respectively, and finite-time disturbance observers are proposed for each robot to estimate the external disturbances. Meanwhile, distributed finite-time tracking controllers are developed for each mobile robot such that all states of each robot can reach the desired value in finite time, where the desired reference value is assumed to be the trajectory of a virtual leader whose information is available to only a subset of the followers, and the followers are assumed to have only local interaction. The effectiveness of the theoretical results is finally illustrated by numerical simulations.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiple nonholonomic mobile robot systems
• distributed finite-time control
• finite-time disturbance observer
• time-varying uncertainties
• time-varying disturbances

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for many helpful comments and suggetions in improving the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 61403227, 61773236]; Natural Science Foundation of the Anhui Higher Education Institutions [grant number KJ2015A252]; Higher Education Excellent Youth Talents Foundation of Anhui Province [grant number gxyqZD2016329]; Zhejiang Open Foundation of the Most Important Subjects and the Natural Science Project of Chuzhou University [grant number 2015PY03].

Notes on contributors

Meiying Ou

Meiying Ou was born in 1983. She received her Ph.D. degree in School of Automation from Southeast University, Nanjing, China in 2012. Currently, she is a associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Chuzhou University. Her research interests include nonlinear system control and cooperative control of mobile robot systems.

Haibin Sun

Haibin Sun was born in 1982. He is an associate professor in the School of Engineering at Qufu Normal University. He received his Ph.D. degree in control theory and application from Southeast University in 2013. His research interests mainly lie in switched control, anti-disturbance control and its application.

Shengwei Gu

Shengwei Gu was born in 1982. He received his M.Sc. degree from Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China in 2008. Currently, He works in School of Computer and Information Engineering, Chuzhou University. His research interests include optimized control and machine learning.

Yangyi Zhang

Yangyi Zhang was born in Anhui Province, China, in1983. He received his BE degree in Electronics Science and Technology from Huaqiao University, Fujian, China, in 2005. He earned his MS degree in Microelectronics and Solid State Electronics from Xiangtan University, Hunan, China, in 2007. Now, he is a lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Chuzhou University. His research focused on the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials and consensus of multi-agent systems.