An integrated robust probing motion planning and control scheme: A tube-based MPC approach

•Developing an integrated robust motion planning and control of a mobile robot.•Adopting output feedback tube-based model predictive control for motion planning and control.•Incorporating future measurement to avoid overly conservative planning.•Relating set-theoretic and stochastic uncertainties to incorporate future measurement in tube-based model predictive control.•Verifying through case-study simulations and experiments with a mobile robot.

‘This paper introduces the integration of a probing scheme into a robust MPC-based robot motion planning and control algorithm. The proposed solution tackles the output-feedback tube-based MPC problem using the partially-closed loop strategy to incorporate future measurements in a computationally efficient manner. This combination will provide not only a robust controller but also avoids overly conservative planning which is a drawback of the original implementation of the output-feedback tube-based MPC. The proposed solution is composed of two controllers: (i) a nominal MPC controller with probing feature to plan a globally convergent trajectory in conjunction with active localization, and (ii) an ancillary MPC controller to stabilize the robot motion around the planned trajectory. The performance and real-time implementation of the proposed planning and control algorithms have been verified through both extensive numerical simulations and experiments with a mobile robot.