Authors:Mathieu Deremetz¹;Adrian Couvent¹;Roland Lenain¹;Benoit Thuilot² andChristophe Cariou¹

Affiliations:¹Université Clermont Auvergne, Irstea, UR TSCF, Centre de Clermont-Ferrand, 9 avenue Blaise Pascal CS 20085, F-63178 Aubière and France;²Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, SIGMA Clermont, Institut Pascal, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand and France

Keyword(s):Wheeled Robots, Field and Agriculture Robots, Edge Tracking.

RelatedOntology Subjects/Areas/Topics:Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics ;Mobile Robots and Autonomous Systems ;Robotics and Automation ;Vehicle Control Applications

Abstract:In this paper, the problem associated with accurate control for mobile robots following an edge is addressed thanks to a backstepping control. In particular, the control of the angular speed (control input) is investigated through the derivation of a new backstepping control by gathering derivatives regarding to time and to the curvilinear abscissa in a single framework. This new reference then allows both time and distance convergence of the robot states towards a trajectory computed with points given by a Lidar only. This permits to address the control of different kinds of robots (skid-steering, car like, four-wheel-steering) in a common framework and to consider independently the speed regulation, the lateral and the longitudinal controls. The control proposed here allows an accurate and reactive path tracking even if the environment is complex and narrow. The efficiency of the approach is investigated through full scale experiments in various conditions.