TRACKING OF NONHOLONOMIC CHAINED-FORM SYSTEMS WITHOUT PERSISTENT EXCITATION1

Global kP-exponential controllers are constructed for the tracking control problem of nonholonomic systems in chained-form whose reference targets are allowed to converge to a point exponentially. By using a novel transformation and the cascade-design method, the tracking control problem is converted into a stabilization problem of two simple subsystems. Then, a design approach based on linear matrix inequalities is developed for stabilizing the subsystems. The assumption on the reference signal is much more relaxed than those given in the previous papers.