DYNAMICS CONTROL OF AN AUTONOMOUS WHEELED GROUND VEHICLE

Autonomous motion of unmanned vehicles requires a control approach which is able to generate and correct the trajectory of the vehicle in order to avoid collisions with unexpected obstacles and takes into account the contact forces between the wheels and the ground such that the slippage is avoided. For achieving autonomy a dynamics based control approach is formulated for a three-wheeled vehicle with front wheel driving and steering. The relationship of the proposed controller and an impedance controller are also discussed based on an analysis of the feedback linearization. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed controller with regard to collision avoidance.