Analysis and optimization of a non-time based motion controller for a nonholonomic mobile robot

In this paper, a non-time based tracking controller of a nonholonomic mobile robot is first analyzed. Nontime based motion controllers have been successfully applied to many areas such as robot motion control, multirobot coordination, force control, robotic teleoperation and manufacturing automation. However, by the traditional non-time based motion controller many suffer from oscillations in both the linear and angular velocities when there is a large initial tracking error. In this paper, a traditional non-time based tracking controller is optimized using a genetic algorithm, which is used to generate the model parameters that could guarantee the system stability and convergence of tracking error. Simulations using a nonholonomic mobile robot model with a four degree of freedom are conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed controller. The results using the proposed model is compared to those of the conventional model. Generally the proposed model performs better than the conventional model because the genetic algorithm can provide better parameters to minimize tracking error and the oscillation.