Switching Controller Design for Nonholonomic Four-Wheeled Vehicles via Finite-Time Stabilization Method

AbstractIn this paper, we study the stabilization problem of nonholonomic four-wheeled vehicles with state constraints. Different from the existing approach where usually the system is transformed into a chained form or a nonholonomic integrator, we deal with the system directly without any transformation, by using finite-time stabilization method repeatedly in a piecewise manner. The main control strategy is to divide the whole procedure into five stages, and to design a finite-time stabilizing controller in each stage so that the vehicle's steering angle and attitude angle reach desired values. The desired values are computed depending on the vehicle's states so that the vehicle moves between two switching lines (corresponding to the state constraints) and finally reaches the desired terminal point. Copyright © 2009 IFAC