Enhancing trajectory tracking accuracy in three-wheeled mobile robots using backstepping fuzzy sliding mode control

The rise in robotics technology has increased interest in ThreeWheeled Mobile Robots (TWMRs) due to their agility and adaptability across various applications. However, effectively controlling TWMRs presents a significant challenge owing to their inherent nonholonomic constraints, which restrict independent movement in all directions. Factors like sensor noise, nonlinear system dynamics, and uncertain system parameters also add to the complexity of controlling TWMRs. This research endeavors to enhance the precision of trajectory tracking in TWMRs. Specifically, it employs Backstepping Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control (BFSMC) with parameters optimized through Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), coupled with the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for state estimation. The study conducts a comprehensive performance comparison between Backstepping Sliding Mode Control (BSMC) and Backstepping Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control(BFSMC) across various trajectory patterns, revealing substantial improvements in trajectory tracking accuracy with BFSMC. BFSMC demonstrates improvements in performance across various trajectory types when considering the integral time absolute error (IAE). Specifically, it achieves a 51.97% improvement for circular trajectories, an 82.09% improvement for infinity trajectories, and an 84.073% improvement for spiral trajectories. Moreover, BFSMC demonstrates superior robustness in the presence of disturbances, noise, parameter variations, and unmodeled dynamics compared to BSMC. Integrating the Extended Kalman Filter further improves accuracy, particularly in noisy conditions.