New kinematic control algorithm for mobile robots

A discrete state space model of the mobile robot is introduced and a modified kinematic control algorithm is proposed. In many traditional control systems, the correction signal of the controller is chosen as the linear function of the tracing error. Although less computation is needed, the response speed of the system is relatively slow. In the algorithm proposed, the correction signal is chosen as the cubic function of the tracing error. Furthermore, by a method of piecewise linearization of the correction gain, the instability that often occurs in a higher order system with larger tracking error is avoided. The performance of the control algorithm is investigated and analyzed by simulation. The results indicate that the new algorithm has similar tracing performance for small tracing error, but for large tracing error, the response speed of the system is improved while the stability is maintained.