This article presents sliding mode–based robust tracking control for a redundant wheeled drive system, which is designed for energy saving and fail safe motion. Wheeled mobile robots are widely used in different applications such as a wheelchair and an automated guided vehicle because of their loading capability, low mechanical complexity, and simple engineering design. In addition, using wheeled mobile robots is an effective way to enhance the quality of life for elderly and disabled people to promote their independence and to extend their activities. Wheeled mobile robots are generally operated using embedded batteries, which determine the operating time. Therefore, saving energy motion is a significant requirement to extend the operation time. The dynamics of a redundant wheeled drive system is described. Distribution control and sliding mode control for wheeled mobile robots are proposed, and its stability is guaranteed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated experimentally, providing superior results to conventional state feedback control and robust tracking in the real environment with less energy.
Mobile robots are widely used in many applications, such as transportation, military domain, searching, guidance, rescue, hazard detection, and carpet cleaning. Because mobile robots usually carry limited power sources, such as batteries, energy saving is an important concern. In particular, differential wheeled mobile robots that have two independently movable wheels are popular because of relatively low mechanical complexity to achieve three-dimensional motion on a ground. This article presents a new wheeled device with a redundant drive system which consists of three independently movable actuators and two planetary gears to connect the actuators to two wheels. The proposed system is able to continue its motion safely when one of the motors breaks down for some causes and also able to operate over a longer period of time due to energy saving consumption property. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in saving energy approximately by 20.45% for linear motion and 13.05% for circular motion compared to a conventional one
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