ISS properties of nonholonomic mobile robots

The paper presents the first result on ISS properties of dynamic unicycle models describing nonholonomic mobile robots. It is known that ISS is related to smooth stabilizability, however this relation cannot exclude the possibility of non smoothly stabilizable systems enjoying ISS properties. In fact, it is shown that in a certain topology that seems to suit the nonholonomic nature of the mobile robot, and by applying a particular control law, the closed loop system can be rendered locally ISS. Apart from any possible theoretical ramifications, this result encourages an ISS-based stability analysis of groups of mobile robots.