Robust adaptive tracking control of wheeled mobile robot

• Tracking control for a wheeled mobile robot is achieved by finite-time control.
• The disturbance observer gives an accurate compensation for system uncertainty.
• Requirement of boundary information of system uncertainty can be released.

This paper considers the problem of robust adaptive trajectory tracking control for a wheeled mobile robot (WMR). First, the trajectory tracking of the WMR is converted to a problem of the stabilization of a double integral system. Next, a continuous finite-time control method is employed to design a tracking controller. Then, a disturbance observer and an adaptive compensator are designed to cooperate with the tracking controller for dealing with system uncertainties of the WMR. Finally, a switching adaptive law is presented in combination with the boundary layer approach to attenuate the chattering in the adaptive compensator. As a result, the control system yields the ultimate boundedness of both the tracking error and the adaptive gain. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the new method.