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Path Tracking Control of Skid-steered Mobile Robot on the Slope Based on Fuzzy System and Model Predictive Control

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  • Robot and Applications
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Abstract

Skid-steered mobile robots are often used in outdoor exploration due to their robust mechanical structure and high maneuverability. When they track reference path on a slope with boundaries, ensuring the tracking accuracy and stability of the skid-steered mobile robot is the major target. However, the gravity makes the relationship between wheels and ground more complex on the slope, and variational slope angle also makes it difficult for tracking control. The common control methods focus on plane motion, where only the plane forces are taken into account and the gravity is normally ignored. It may lead to some performance limitations such as the accuracy of motion on a slope. To address these problems, a model predictive control strategy combined with a fuzzy system is proposed in this paper, which has considered the dynamics of the body and wheels on the slope. We improved the two dimensional kinematics and dynamics model of the robot, which makes the three dimensional motion control more accurate. And the control method allows the robot to adapt to slopes with different angles and to make the path tracking stable to curvature mutation. Both experiment and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed model and method.

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Funding

The work was supported in part by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guang-Dong Province under Grant 2019B010924005, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51975236, 51905185.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Xiao Yue, Jiankui Chen, Yiqun Li, Rong Zou, Zhihao Sun, Xiaochuan Cao & Song Zhang

Authors
  1. Xiao Yue
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  2. Jiankui Chen
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  3. Yiqun Li
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  4. Rong Zou
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  5. Zhihao Sun
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  7. Song Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiankui Chen.

Additional information

Xiao Yue received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and automation from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), in 2014. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in the School of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. His research interests include nonlinear control, adaptive control, and intelligent drive.

Jiankui Chen received his B.S. degree in vehicle operation engineering from the Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2001, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, in 2006 and 2010, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor with the State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, HUST. His current research interests include flexible electronics manufacturing and AI control and applications.

Yiqun Li is a lecturer at the State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received a Ph.D. degree in computational mathematics from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2017. His research interests include robotics, nonlinear geometric control, structure-preserving simulation, and data-driven science and technology.

Rong Zou received his B.S. degree in naval architecture and ocean engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, in 2019. He is now a Master student in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Eidgenssische Technische Hochschule Zrich (ETH Zrich). His current research interests include mobile robots, control theory, and intelligent optimization algorithms.

Zhihao Sun received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and automation from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), in 2016. He is currently working toward a Master’s degree in the School of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. His research interests include mobile robot localization and mapping.

Xiaochuan Cao received his B.S. degree in naval architecture and ocean engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in 2018, and an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in 2021. His research interests include robot perception and SLAM.

Song Zhang received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and automation from Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2019, and an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2021. His research interests include intelligent drive, path tracking, and model predictive control.

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Yue, X., Chen, J., Li, Y. et al. Path Tracking Control of Skid-steered Mobile Robot on the Slope Based on Fuzzy System and Model Predictive Control. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 20, 1365–1376 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-021-0203-0

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