Optimum path tracking of an independently steered four wheeled mobile robot.

摘要

This thesis studies the navigational control problem for an independently steered and driven four-wheeled ground robotic vehicle, a subset of the larger problem of controlling self-reconfigurable robotic vehicles. A reconfigurable vehicle is kinematically modeled and simplified using a fixed suspension. A combined steering and speed control scheme is proposed that coordinates steering angles by remembering the path of the front axle, given by navigational sensors.;Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the proposed algorithms. One simulation demonstrates the performance of the controller, while the second compares the maneuverability of the proposed steering algorithm with existing methods. The first experiment compares the performance of the proposed algorithm with existing algorithms on a variety of preprogrammed paths, and the second compares the performance by reactively constructing the path in real time using sensors. Results show the proposed algorithm outperformed others consistently by rates up to 40%, depending on path geometry.