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A Stable Tracking Control Method for an

Autonomous Mobile Robot

Kanayama, Yutaka; Kimura, Yoshihiko; Miyazaki, Fumio;

Noguchi, Tetsuo

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/40155

This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United
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 A Stable Tracking Control Method
for an Autonomous Mobile Robot
Yutaka Kanayama Yoshihiko Kimura Fumio Miyazaki Tetsuo Noguchi
Dept of Computer Science Center for Robotic Systems Osaka University Center for robotic Systems
Naval Postgraduate School University of California Dept of Mechanical Engineering University of California
Monterey, CA 93943 Santa Barbara,CA 93106 Toyonaka, Japan Santa Barbara, CA 93106

CORIDept of Computer Science Mitsubishi Metal Corp.

University of California Tokyo, Japan
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a stable tracking control rule for algorithm for lineadrotational velocity rules in an earlier locomotion control
non-bolonomic vehicles. Stability of the rule is proved through method on the Yamabico-11 robot [7]. Nelson proposed a locomotion con-
the use of a Liapunov function. Input to the vehicle are a refer- trol method for a cart with a front steering wheel, in which they also used
ence posture (x,, y,, 8,)' and reference velocities (v,, ar)'. the error coordinate system [8]. They adopted a linear function in control
The major objective of this paper is to propose a control rule to rules for steering and linear velocity. These two papers are regarded as
find a reasonable target linear and rotational velocities (v, a)'. pioneers of this paper.
Linearizing the system's differential equation is useful to In this paper, a new control rule for determining vehicle's linear and
decide parameters for critical dumping for a small disturbance. rotational velocities are given, which are different from both of [7] and [8].
In order to avoid any slippage, a velocity/acceleration limita- The stability of the control rule is proven using a Liapunov function
tion scheme was introduced. Several siniulation results are [91[101[11]. The use of the trace function (I - cose) of orientation 0 is suc-
presented with or without the velocity/acceleration limiter. cessful in finding an appropriate Liapunov function [Ill. One of the
The control rule and limiting method proposed in this paper are difficulties of this problem lies in the fact that ordinary vehicles possess
robot-independent and hence can be applied to various kind of only two degrees of freedom (linear velocity v and rotational velocity CO)for
mobile robots with a dead reckoning ability. This method was locomotion control, although vehicles have three degrees of freedom, x, y
implemented on the autonomous mobile robot Yamabico-11. .and 8 in its positioning. Another difficulty is in the non-linearity of the
Experimental results obtained are close to the results with the kinematic relation between (v, CO)'and (i,i,6)'. The use of a Liapunov
velocity/acceleration limiter. function resolves these difficulties.
By linearizing the system's differential equation, we find a condition
for critical dumping, which gives appropriate parameters for specilic con-
trol rules. The need of velocity/acceleration limitation is also discussed.
1. Introduction After these analyses and discussions, abundant simulation results are
presented. The method described so far is hardware independent and appli-
The purpose of this paper is to propose a stable tracking control
cable to ordinary (not omni-directional) vehicles.
method for a non-holonomic vehicle with abundant simulation results. Real
experimental results on the autonomous mobile robot Yamabico-1I are also This method is useful to the class of autonomous vehicles in which
presented. (a) a dead reckoning capability is provided, (b) reference path specification
and current position estimation (through dead reckoning) are given
Tsumura proposed a method in which the reference point sequence is
separately, and (c) high precision in positional control is mandatory. This
stored in memory. In each cycle of the locomotion control, the reference
method was implemented on the autonomous mobile robot Yamabico-11
point and the future position of the robot is compared for determining the
which has been developed at the University of Tsukuba, the University of
next steering [2]. Kanayama proposed a method using straight line refer-
Califomia at Santa Barbara, and Naval Postgraduate School. It was demon-
ence for the robot's locomotion instead of a sequence of points 131. Its
strated that these algorithms are sound and provided precise tracking con-
velocity and steering control niethod has some similarities to the one pro-
trol. An extensive set of the experimental results are shown.
posed in this paper. Crowley developed a locomotion control system whose
organization ha$ a three layered structure [4]. He defiles the concept of
"virtual vehicle" which is useful for constructing a system wluch is robot
independent. In its command system, independent control of linear and 2. Problem Statements
rotational motion is possible, thus e n a b h g sniooth clothoid curves [SI. Before stating the problem, we will give a few preliminary
Sin& used an inverse kinematic and a quintic polynomial metbod for com- definitions.
pensating errors in vehicle tracking [6]. In the second method, he interpo-
lates the current point and a future reference point with a smooth curve. 2.1. Path Representation and Vehicle Kinematics
Kanayama proposed the use of a reference and current postures for There is a mobile robot which is located on a 2D plane in which a
vehicle control, the use of a local error coordinate system, and a PI control global Cartesian coordinate system is defined. The robot in the world

384
cH2876-1/90/oooO/0384$01.00
0 1990 IEEE
possesses three degrees of freedom in its positioning which are represented

I]
by aposture,

P" (1)

where the heading direction 0 is taken counterclockwise from the x-axis.

Let 0 denote a null posture (0, 0, 2nx)', where n is an integer. Since the
robot has a locomotion c a p a b ~ t yin the plane, the posture p is in fact a
function of time r. The entire locus of the point (x ( I ) , y ( I ) ) is called a path
or trujecrory. If the time derivatives i and y exist, e(t) is not an indepen-
dent variable any more, because

I I'
The vehicle's motion is controlled by its linear velocity v and rota-
tional velocily o,which are also functions of time. The vehicle's kineniat-
ics is defined by a Jacobian m m J :
Fig. I Reference and Current Postures

where q = (v. w)'. This kinematics is common to all kinds of vehicles which
are not omnidirectional. (For instance, an automobile, a bicycle, a vehicle
with two parallel independent power wheels - power wheeled steering sys-
Y f
tem, and a tricycle) The linear velocity v and rotational velocity w of this -
n
kind of vehicle is controlled by its accelerator and s t e e h g wheel or handle 12
respectively.

2.2. Error Posture

1+ d
In this control system, two postures are used; the reference posture
e,)'
p, = ( x r , y,, and the current posture pc = (xc, yc, e=)'.
A reference pos-
ture is a goal posture of the vehicle and a current posture is its "real" pos-
ture at this moment respectively (Fig. 1). We will deline an error posture
p. of the two, which is a transformation of the reference posture p, in a
local coordinate system with an origin of (xc, y , ) and an X-axisin the direc-
tion of Bc [7][8] (Fig. 2). This is the "difference" between pr and pc:

If p r = p c , the error posture pe =O. If pr is ahead of pc (the vehicle is

behind of the god), x, > 0. For instance, if pc =(3/2, 1, d 6 ) and
pr = (512, 1 + 6 , d4). p. = (6, 1, x / 12) (Figure 2 illustrates this case). Fig. 2 Error Posture

2.3. Problem
Now, we are able to state the architecture of a tracking control system
for the vehicle (Fig. 3). The global input of the system is the reference pos-
lure pr and reference velocities q, = (vr,or)', which are variables of time.
The global output of the system is the current posture pc. The purpose of
this tracking contcoller is to converge the error posture to 0. Let us describe
each component in Figure 3 from left to right. The k t component calculate )'(Pc *(le)
+ PC(0
an error posture &om p, and pc using Eguation (4). The second box is a
control rule for the vehicle, which calculates a target velocities q = ( v , o)'
using the error posture pe and the reference velocities q, = ( v , cor):

(5)
Fig. 3 Architecture of Tracking Controller
The lhird box T stands for the vehicle hardware capability of transforming
target velocities to vehicle's real current velocities. In Sections 3 and 4,

385
specifically, we assume the identity !”formation: Soundness of this control rule (8) is established by the following pro-

J:[
J .
position:
clc = = = cl
Proposition 1 . If we use the control mle (8), p. = 0 is a stable equili-
This perfect velocio tracking assumption simplifies the forthcoming brium point if the reference velocity v, > 0.
analysis.
The fourth box is the kinematics matrix M in Equation (3) to produce Proof. Let us propose a scalar function V as a Liapunov function
the derivative of a cumnt posture pc. The last box is for integration. candidate [9]:
Thus, only unknown component in this system is the control rule. Since the
system’s input pr is time-variable, it is called “non-autonomous’‘ by the v=+x:+y:)+ci
2 -coSe.)iK, (10)
definition in the control theory [9].
Clearly, V 2 0. If pe = 0, V = 0. If p. # 0, V > 0. Fwthermore, by Lemma
3. A Control Scheme and Its Stability
2:
In this section, we will find a stable control rule using a Liapunov
function [9]. The following lemma follows the system depicted in Figure 1. v =XJ, +‘.ye + e.sine,/K,
= [(w, + V,W,Y. + K e sine.))y. - KP,I 1,

+ [+or+ v,(K,y. + K e sine.)k + v,sine,l Y .

+ [-v,(K,y. + K e sine.)] sine,lK,
= -K,X.~ - v,Kesin2e./Ky 2 o

Then, V becomes a Liapunov function. 0

The following proposition demonstrates that the uniformly asymptoti-

cally stability around p. = 0 under some conditions:

Proposition 2 . Assume that (a) v, and w, are conthiuous, (b)

vr, a,., K,,and K e are bounded, and (c) i , and w, are suf6ciently small.
Under these conditions, p. = 0 is uniformly asymptotically stable over
LO, -).
Proof. By linearizing the differential Equation (9) around p. = 0

P. = A P. (11)

Then, A (.) is continuously differentiable and is bounded. The characteristic

equation forA is:

ugS3+u2s2+u,s+a,=O (13)
where

. . .
e. =er -ec = W, - W,
Substituting vc and w, by v(p,, q,.) and v(p,, (I) respectively (cf. Equa- (13)’
tions (6) and (5)). we obtain the lemma. 0

Let us propose a specific instance of the control rule (5) for the target Since all coefficients ai are positive and U 1 u 2- uoa3> 0, the real parts of
velocities as follows: aU roots are negative through the Routh-Hurwitz Criterion. Therefore, by
Corollary 41 on page 223 in [91, the Proposition was proved. U

where K,,Ky and K e are positive constants. The first term in each velocity 4. Effect8 of Control Parameters
is a feedfonuard part. By Lemma I: In the previous section, we demonstrated that the system is stable for
any combination of parameter values of K,, Ky,and K e . However, since we
Lemma 2 need a non-oscillatory, but not too slow response of the robot, we have to
6nd an optimal parameter set. In order to simplify the analysis, we consider
only situations in which the reference posture is moving on the x axis to the
positive direction at a constant velocity V,:

386
This condition is called the linear reference morion. lo addition, we
assume that:

le,l a1 and l6,l a1 (15) < = 1.25

Proposition3. Under Conditions (14) and (15).

Fig.4 Transient Respmes (Simulatiou)

f‘roqf By substituting Equation (11) by Equation (4),

P, = T;‘ (A T. - ~,XP,- P,) + P, (17)

By Equatiou (4), Condition (14) and (19, le,( = le,( al.
16, I = 16, I 1. Therefore T. and Te in Equation (17) can be considemi
as the identity matrix and null matrix respectively. Therefore,
Pc = A (Pc - Pr) + Pr
By substituting the previous equation by Equation (4) and condition (14).
we obtain Equation (16). U
t
Equation (16) shows the behavior x, is independent of ys and 8, is
this small pemrbation case. l/Kx corresponds to the time constant of the
exponential decay.
Ay = lOcm
Corollary I When x, = Ax at r = 0,

x, = v,r +AXe+
without limiter I1
By cancelling 8, in Equation(16).
- _ _
y, + 2 < 5 y, + 5 2 = 0 iI - with limiter
r , , I , , ! , ‘ ~ I
Where,
0 100 sc (cm)

Fig. 5 Lateral Discontinuity

Corollary 2 The condition for critical damping is

ters are v, = 3Ocm/sec, Ky = 6.4 x IV3/cm, 5 = 2.4/sec, and K, = IOlsec.
Kg2 = 4 Ky (20) (c
A0 over dumping case = 0.75 and Kg = 0.12/cm), a critical dumping
case ( < = I and Ko=0.16/cm), and an oscillatory case. (<= 1.25 and
Ke = 0.20/cm)a~ used. With the small Ay perturbation of 5an, the result
Corollary 3 In critical damping and if y, =Ay and 0, = 0 at r = 0,
of simulation and analysis matches. In the fdowing experiments and in
our real implementation, we adopt the critical damping condition, (= 1,
(21) since the convergence is fastestunder non-oscillatory coeditioa

5. Velocity/Acceleration Limiting
In this motion, the m r ratio of yJAy is reducedto 9.2% when x, becomes
For this tracking controller system, reference paths designated by
41477. p,(t) and e(!) should satisfy the following conditions for “smoothness”
(Preposition 2); (a) the path itself is continuous, (d) the path has tangent
Simulation results on three distinct convergence characteristics are direction continuity, (c) the path curvature is continuous,(d) the derivative
shown in Figure 4. Here, the robot’s p, and pc were moving on the x axis &
G, is bounded, and (e) the derivative is bounded (and hence, the deriva-
to the positive direction, when y, suddenly jumps up with Ay = 5cm while tive of curvatwe is also bounded). %s curvature continuity requirement
continuing a parallel horizontal reference motion. The conimon parame- (c) is the reason why clorltoid curves, cubic spirals, and polar polynomials
have been developed for vehicle path planning [5][13][14].
i + )&
! 2 < 65cm/sec,
From a vehicle navigator’s viewpoint, however, it is convenient if
non-smooth paths am allowed to use. Although a path consisting of a line where W is the m a d (52.4cm). Through this relation, we chose the max-
A ^

segment and a chcular an: does not possess curvature continuity, that kind b u m velocities as ( v , 0) = (4Ocm/sec, 0.8rdsec). We detemline the
of paths are widely used [71[151[161[17]. In the MML language on the values of and by experiments with which the robot never slips:
1 . -

Yamabico-11 mobile robot, a function called set-current(&p) is provided to (a, a)= (50cm/sec2,5rad/sec).
compensate the robot’s positional error dynamically, and hence, it is
frequently used in real-time navigation experiments [19]. However, if we 6.3. Experimental Results
allow these non-smooth paths, (i) either or both of the target velocities We conducted a few experiments to make sure that these values of Ky
(v, w) by Equation (8) might become too large to be attained by a real vehi- and K O are reasonable. Figure 8 shows experimental results with three dis-
cle, and (ii) the linear/rotational acceleration might become too large caus- tinct values of 5, which corresponds to Figure 4. Figure 9 shows results on
ing the robot’s slippage (Any slippage is a cause of a severe error in dead- Ay, which corresponds to Figure 5 . Figure 10 shows results on AB, which
reckoning). Therefore, in order to handle those non-smooth reference paths, corresponds to Figure 7. (As shown here, the results on the real vehicle are
we need some limiter for velocities and accelerations. We adopt ^ ^
a simple close to that of simulation with a velocity/acceleration limiter.) In Figures
algorithm of limiting the target velocitie: :( w) by constants (v, w) and the 8-10, the trajectories are plotted using the current posture pc which is
target accelerations (a, a)by constants (a, a),where a = V is a h e a r target obtained by the vehicle’s dead reckoning.
acceleration and a = w a rotational wrget acceleration. This modification
is implemented in the box Tin Figure 3.
Figure 5 shows simulation results for various values of Ay’s with and
without the velocity/acceleration limiter. Notice that the responses with a
limiter are slower than that without a limiter. Hereafter, all simulations are
done using the Critical damping parameter set. Figure 6 shows simulation
results for A0 discontinuous jumps without limitation (AB = x/4, x I 2 and
3x14). Figure 7 shows simulation results for A0 discontinuous jumps with
velocity/acceleration limitation.

6. Implementation
The results presented in Sections 3 , 4 and 5 were hardware indepen-
dent. In this Section, we will describe how the theory was implemented on
the robot Yamabico-11.
0
6.1. Determining Control Parameters - Fig 6 Directional Discontinuity 1
I
A larger K, makes convergence faster and reduces a steady error x.. (Shnulation without Limiter)
However, it is not appropriate to have a time constant IIK, comparable to I I
>- 0 ~- .- -
the sampling time of the robot’s hardware. With a larger K x , the control
system tends to be oscillatofy and instable even in its stop state (where - 100 -50 0 -7 xc (cm)
p, = constant). An oscillation is observed at K, = 30/sec, when t h e con-
stant IIK, = 33ms is compatible to the robot’s sampling time T, = IOms.
Balancing these factors, K, = 10Isec was chosen.
Adopting the critical damping condition (6 = 1 ) in Section 4, we also
to determine a value of 6 for appropriate response of current posture pc. A
larger 5 makes convergence faster. However, a too large 5 demands the
robot an excessive rotational velocity. We decided to adjust lhe parameters
so that the robot will reduce the error ycIAy into 9.2% during a 50cni run
after a small perturbation of Ay. Therefore, by Corollaries 2 and 3, value
K, = 6 . 4 ~ 1 0 - ~ / tand ~ e = 0.16/cm are detemiined. In this case, the
n ~K
time constant I / \ = 112.4sec is sufficiently larger than the sampling time
Ts = I0nts.
With these K,, K,. aid K e , no oscillations were seen. The emors .re
and ye at constant reference velocity of 30cnilsec are about 2mm a d less
than l r m respectively.
Fig. 7 Directional Discontinuity
6.2. Determining Maximum VelwitylAcceleration
(Simulation with Limiter)
The maximum linear velocity of the Yamabico-11 is known as
65cm/sec. We must consider the condition that even when the robot runs at
~ ~ ~

and rotates at w at the same time, the velocity of the outer wheel should -~ iii cl -15 xc ( c m )
not exceed that maximum velocity, 65cm/sec. Thus,

388
 Acknowledgement
Tk a u t h m thank Dr. Shin'ichi Yuta, Michiyuki Shindo aud Teijiro
4 = 0.75 Kajiwara for the design and construction of Yamabico-11, and Amir Nili-
pour and Tony Lelm for their design and implementation of the earlier ver-
sion of the Yamabico software system including the tracking controller.
The authors also are thankfid to Dr. Daaiel Koditschek for his helpful com-
' cc == 1.25 ments on the stability theory.

0
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