A Robust Adaptive Control of Mecanum Wheel Mobile Robot: Simulation and Experimental Validation

Omnidirectional mobile robots with four Mecanum wheels are used in various homes, military, nuclear power plant, industrial, hospital and space applications. A lot of research has been done using three universal wheels but trajectory control for four Mecanum wheeled mobile robot (FMWMR) in presence of uncertainties still needs attention. Thus, to obtain smooth motion of mobile robots, with chattering free control input, in presence of uncertainties and external force disturbances, a robust and adaptive control is necessary. In view of these aspects, this paper extends the use of adaptive sliding mode controller for trajectory tracking of FMWMR. The effectiveness of proposed controller is verified using two case problems. Simulation results are presented for the verification of proposed controller for FMWMR. Further, experiments are conducted using position and orientation sensor to show the performance of the controller in real world environment. Simulation and experimental results revealed that FMWMR is capable of tracking any type of trajectories.