Application of Inverse Simulation to a Wheeled Mobile Robot

This paper presents the application of Inverse Simulation to the control of a mobile robot. The implementation of this technique for motion control has been found to provide highly accurate trajectory tracking. Since the input to the Inverse Simulation is a time history of the desired response, then greater control over the position and orientation of the mobile robot can be achieved. There are many situations where the desired path of a mobile robot is known e.g. planetary rover navigation, factory or warehouse floor, bomb disposal. Typically the robot is either controlled remotely or runs an online controller to navigate the desired path. For a given path, a navigation system generates the desired drive parameters (i.e. heading and velocity) and the associated controllers drive the corresponding actuators. Traditionally the controllers are required to be tuned using knowledge of the limitations of the mobile robot. Inverse Simulation provides a means of generating the required control signals with no need for controller tuning. The use of Inverse Simulation is suitable in cases where the cost of the mobile robot or actuators is high, desired drive requirements need to be met or for situations where tight tolerances on the trajectory are to be achieved. In this paper the benefits of applying Inverse Simulation to the control of a mobile robot are discussed and appropriate results presented.