Modeling and analysis in trajectory tracking control for wheeled mobile robots with wheel skidding and slipping: Disturbance rejection perspective

Wheeled mobile robot (WMR) is usually applicable for executing an operational task around complicated environment; skidding and slipping phenomena unavoidably appear during the motion, which thus can compromise the accomplishment of the task. This paper investigates the trajectory tracking control problem of WMRs via disturbance rejection in the presence of wheel skidding and slipping phenomena. The kinematic and dynamic models with the perturbed nonholonomic constraints are established. The trajectory tracking control scheme at the dynamic level is designed so that the mobile robot system can track the virtual velocity asymptotically, and counteract the perturbation caused by the unknown skidding and slipping of wheels. Both simulation and experimental works are conducted, and the results prove the performance of the proposed control scheme is effective in terms of tracking precision and disturbance attenuation.