2018 Australian & New Zealand Control Conference (ANZCC)
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia, Dec 7-8, 2018
Robust Trajectory Tracking Control Design for Nonholonomic Mobile
Robot (NMR)
Bilal M Yousuf
Abstract— This paper addresses the problem of trajectory
tracking for kinematic model of unicycle-type nonholonomic
mobile robot. These robots are difficult to stabilize and control
due to their non-integrable constraints. Due to this problem, it
is difficult to establish a systematic model for tracking. In this
paper, the proposed controller is defined in a two-step process.
First, a robust state feedback point-to-point stabilization control
is designed using Sliding Mode Controller (SMC). In the second
step, the controller is modified so as to address the tracking
problem for the constant as well as time-varying reference
trajectories . The proposed control scheme is shown to provide
for desired robustness properties in presence of the parametric
variations, in the region of interest. The state-feedback control
scheme is then extended to output feedback by incorporating
a High Gain Observer. With the help of Lyapunov analysis
and appropriate simulations, it is shown that the proposed
output feedback control scheme achieves the required control
objectives and provides for the desired performance in the
presence of parametric variations.
Index Terms— Nonholonomic Mobile Robots; Robust Con-
trol; Sliding Mode Control; Stabilization and Trajectory Track-
ing, Lyapunov Analysis, High Gain Observer
I. I NTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, a number of researchers have
contributed towards the analysis and control design of under-
actuated and non-holonomic robotic systems. The motivation
and interest has been primarily sparked by the fact that
such under-actuated and non-holonomic systems present
some very interesting, yet challenging, control problems
which arise in a variety of practical applications, such as
robotics, control of autonomous vehicles as well as electro-
mechanical systems for which the number of actuators is
smaller than the number of degrees of freedom. In today’s
world, Wheeled Mobile Robots (WMRs) are increasingly
finding their presence and utilization in industrial as well
as service enterprises, particularly with respect to their capa-
bility of an accurate autonomous motion (e.g. stabilization as
well as tracking) while achieving a desired degree of obstacle
avoidance etc. Besides this, the problem of autonomous
motion planning and control of WMRs has attracted the
interest of researchers in view of many theoretical challenges
that this problem poses. WMRs are known to be non-
holonomic i.e. they are subject to some of the nonholonomic
constraints that arise in control of a WMR due to their non-
integrable properties. In this paper, we focus our attention to
designing of a nonlinear controller that achieves stabilization
The authors are with the Department of Electronics and Power
Engineering at Pakistan Navy Engineering College, which is a constituent
college of National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pak-
istan.(email: bilal.yousaf2015@pnec.nust.edu.pk,
attaullah@pnec.nust.edu.pk)
978-1-5386-6617-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
1 and Attaullah Y. Memon2
as well as reference trajectory tracking objectives for a Non-
holonomic Wheeled Mobile Robot (NMR).
In control theory, trajectory tracking is an important as
well as a challenging problem, especially when the system is
exposed to unknown disturbances/parametric variations etc.
Several researchers have contributed towards the solution of
this problem thereby proposing various techniques and solu-
tions. Gao et al., in [1], have addressed the state feedback
stabilization problem for a mobile robot by transforming the
system into a normal form using an input-state scaling along
with a back-stepping recursive approach. In another work
of relevance, Pourboghrat in [2] proposed point-to-point
control design for differentially steered NMR. A Lyapunov
analysis is carried out to validate the performance of the
controller. Guangzhou et.al in [3] addressed the stabilization
problem of NMR by decoupling the system equations into a
single time-varying linear system and then by incorporating a
Sliding Mode Control (SMC) scheme to achieve the desired
objectives. Lee and Lin [4] presented the idea of using RFID
sensor to estimate the real posture of NMR. This scheme
also uses SMC technique for tracking NMR to desired
trajectories.
It is desirable to design a controller that makes use of
estimated states rather than measured ones. This requires use
of a suitable observer that can estimate the required states fast
enough and with a degree of robustness against model per-
turbations or parametric uncertainties. For the problem under
consideration, Lefeber and Nijmeijer in [5] have proposed a
tracking control scheme that uses a full state observer. It is
relevant to mention here the work of Huang and Wang [6]
in which an adaptive output feedback control technique has
been shown to provide desired tracking performance using
an adaptive control scheme using an observer.
In this paper, we propose and analyze a robust tracking
control scheme for NMRs. A robust stabilizing controller is
designed utilizing SMC technique that addresses stabilization
as well as tracking problem for the NMR. In a desirable prac-
tical scenario, NMR may not be equipped with the sensors
to measure velocity and position, due to the additional cost
and weight on the structure of NMR. For that, the proposed
control scheme is extended to an output feedback by using
high-gain observer. The main objective is to incorporate
the effects of the kinematic model during the design of
nonlinear control to enhance robustness properties for better
stability and accuracy. The closed-loop system performance
analysis is carried out using Lyapunov stability methods.
Convergence of the system trajectories to the desired set is
shown analytically as well as by simulation.
285
 one obtains
ẋ0 =u0
ẋ1 =x2 u0
(2)
ẋ2 =u1 − x1 u0
y1 =x0 , y2 = x1 , y3 = x2
The Chained form in equation (2) has a strong underlying
linear structure. The above system can be describe in two
sub-system as:
Fig. 1. Configuration of a Three-Wheeled Robot [4] Ẋ0 =u0
(3)
Ẋ =AX + Bu1
The remaining of the paper is organized as follows.: Where,
Section II discusses the problem formulation of NMR. The X0 =x0
design of the desired control law for stabilization and track- X =[x1 x2 ... xn ]T
ing of NMR is defined in section III. Section IV addresses the
The matrix (A,B) in equation (3) can be defined as:
design of an output feedback controller using a high gain ob-    
server, along with its stability analysis and implementation. 0 u0 (t) ... 0 0
Finally, concluding remarks and future recommendation are . .. .
.
  
A = 0 0 0  , B = .

drawn in Section V. ... ... ... u0 (t) 0
II. P ROBLEM F ORMULATION 0 0 0 0 1
Consider a three-wheel type mobile robot with non- This clearly appears the second part of the equation (3)
integrable constraints. The basic model of three-wheel NMR becomes a single-input- time-varying linear system when u0
can be seen in Figure.1. Mathematical model of NMR is is taken as a function of time and no longer as a control
derived in Cartesian coordinate system (x,y) [2]. The model variable. The selection of u0 is very important to make sure
is defined under the hypothesis of pure rolling and non- the system is controllable in finite time. However, it can be
slipping surface as: uncontrollable due to the first part of the equation (3) depend
ẋj =vj cosθj upon the selection of u0 . The second part of the equation (3)
ẏj =vj sinθj (1) is a state equation of linear system. We can apply the SMC
to this system based on linear system theory.
θ̇j =wj
The objectives of the research in this paper are presented
where (xj , yj ) denotes the position of the center of mass as follows:
of the robot and θj is the heading angle of the robot, re- • To design a stable point-to-point control law to stabilize
spectively vj and wj represent as linear and angular forward the NMR at its equilibrium point.
velocity of the robot.(xj (0), yj (0), θj (0))T represent as the • To design a tracking controller, which tracks the time-
initial values of the parameters respectively. varying reference trajectory.
The possibility of modeling the kinematic equation of a • To design an output feedback tracking controller for
WMR by so called canonical chained form has been used in estimating the states for better transient performance.
different papers [3]. For the purpose of designing a control
scheme using SMC technique, it is desirable to convert the III. ROBUST S TABILIZATION AND T RACKING C ONTROL
system (1) in a suitable canonical chained form such that D ESIGN
desired control objectives can be achieved in a systematic In this section, we present the control scheme that achieves
manner. In this regard, we use the input transformation the objectives as outlined in section II. Starting with the
approach as presented in [1], to bring the system (1) in the mathematical equation of NMR, we demonstrate a systematic
following form: approach of robust tracking control scheme for NMRs. A

 ẋ0 =
 u0 robust stabilizing controller is designed using SMC technique



 ẋ 1 = x 2 u0 that addresses the stabilization as well as the tracking prob-
ẋ2 = u1 − x0 u0 lem for NMR. The proposed control design objective is to
 .. follow the reference trajectory define as:
.





ẋn = u2 ẋjr =vjr cosθjr
For the system equation (1), by taking the following state ẏjr =vjr sinθjr (4)
and input transformation, the model converted as: θ̇jr =wjr
x0 =θj , x1 = xj sinθj − yj cosθj xjr , yjr are the position reference of the NMR. Whereas
x2 =xj cosθj + yj sinθj , u0 = wj , u1 = vj θjr is the reference orientation angle. Proposed design of

286
controller attempts to enable the robot to track itself to match
up the reference and stabilize at certain equilibrium point.
For simplicity, we convert the system into error model. Now
the global change of coordinates is introduced as:
ẋ =Ax + Bu + E(r)
(5)
e =x1 − r
E(r) defined as the reference trajectories. The error variable
can be written as:
     
ejx cosθj sinθj 0 xjr − xj
ejy  = −sinθj cosθj 0 ∗  yjr − yj  (6)
ejθ 0 0 1 θjr − θj
By taking the derivative of the equation (6), ė = Ae+B[x1 −
r]u. These new coordinate of the error model for a single
NMR describe as:
Fig. 2. NMR Trajectories Stabilize at Origin
ėjx =wj ejy + vj − vjr cosejθ
ėjy = − wj ejx + vjr sinejθ (7)
ėjθ =wj − wjr In order to force the system dynamics to converge into the
switching surface, impose the following nonlinear sliding
For constant reference trajectories ejθ → 0. The system (7)
manifold defined as:
can be considered as the following system (8):
ėjx =wj ejy + vj − vjr σ̇ = − aSign(σ) (13)
ėjy = − wj ejx (8) where a > 0
ėjθ =wj − wjr Remark 1: This discontinuous function can be often used
as a replacement of the equation (13):
For constant reference, the system can be described as ė = 
ẋ1 − ṙ as ṙ = 0, ė = ẋ1 . To converge position tracking −asignσ |σ| > 
σ̇ =
error to zero, the states should converged to zero as well. By −a σ |σ| < 
introducing the change of variable tracking problem is now The selection of the value of  is important to overcome
converted into a stabilization problem for new coordinates. the problem of chattering. This will affect the accuracy of
A. Stabilization Control controller.
The equivalent control equation is defined as:
The proposed control scheme compiled in two steps.
First, we determine a control u1 which drive the system u1 = (CB)−1 (−CAX − asign(σ)) (14)
to its desired value in finite time. In second step, choose
a switching control u0 which ensures system boundedness. For x0 -subsystem, we take the following control law as:
Such a control law can be written as: u0 = k0 β (15)
u = u0 + u1 (9) Where 
sign(x0 ), |x0 | > ε
The main goal of this paper is to drive the system states to β
x0 , |x0 | ≤ ε
its equilibrium point. For that a switching function is defined
for the system equation (3) as: ε > 0 is a small constant, it can clearly be observed that the
control law u0 is bounded by a constant k0 ε.
s=C ∗X (10) Lemma 1: For any arbitrary condition x0 (t0 ) 6= 0, where
For sliding mode control, one of the most important things t0 ≥ 0, the equivalent solution x0 (t) exists and globally
is to select a suitable matrix C for switching surface. The regulated to zero.
propose control scheme is forcing the system states to slide Proof: for the stability analysis of the of equation 15, Taking
along the surface and drive them to their desired states. For this Lyapunov function V = 21 x20 , a simple computation
that this following condition needs to be fulfilled: gives: 
−k0 |x0 | , |x0 | > ε
V̇
 
 x1 (16)
−k0 x20 , |x0 | ≤ 0

S(t) = CX = C1 C2 (11)
x2
Refer from Lemma 1, we conclude that x0 exists and x0 → 0
Suppose the matrix C is so designed that the matrix CB is as t → ∞.
nonsingular. Therefore, the equivalent control law equation The final control law equation is expressed as:
is defined as:
u1 = (CB)−1 CAX (12) u = (CB)−1 (CAX − asign(σ)) + k0 x0 (17)

287
 1) Stability Analysis: The closed-loop system under the
proposed control scheme is stable due to consideration of
the above sliding surface equation (13) σ. Let the Lyapunov
function as V = 21 σ T σ. After taking the derivative, the
equation becomes:
V̇ =σ T σ̇
V̇ =σT (−asign(σ))
(18)
V̇ = − aσ T sign(σ)
V̇ = − a kσk ≤ 0
This conditions satisfied the outside or inside boundary layer

−k kσk kσk ≥ 
2
− k kσk < 0 kσk ≤  Fig. 4. NMR Trajectories in X-Y Plane

The above analysis is summarized in this following theorem:

Theorem 1: For the system (1), under the control law (17)
make the system stabilize at the equilibrium point track for
the desired trajectories, satisfies the lemma 1.
Proof : The proof mainly based on the Lemma 1, The control
law equation (17) is globally exponentially stable (GES) as
it derived any arbitrary condition of the system toward the
equilibrium point. Therefore refer from Lemma 1, the system
is uniformly stable.
2) Implementation: This section presents the implemen-
tation of proposed control law established in sub-section
III A. The objective is to stabilize the single robot at the
desired equilibrium point consider as origin with the help
of tracking. The switch function of the system is taken as
s = CX = ku1 x0 1 + k2 x2 . The control input is defined as:
u1 = x2 −asign(σ)+k0 x0 . For the design of control scheme,
we assume the boundness of the switch function () is 0.5.
For the x0 -subsystem, we can choose the control law,
 Lyapunov function can be expressed as: V = 21 e2jy . By taking
sign(x0 ), |x0 | > 0.5
u0 (x0 )
x0 , |x0 | ≤ 0.5
The performance results of the proposed controller have been
shown through simulations in Figure.2, 3 and 4. Control
parameter are defined as, k0 = 5, k1 , k2 = 6, a = 6 and
the reference linear and angular velocity are uniform, that
is [vjr , wjr ] = 1. The state trajectories converge to zero
over finite time is shown in Figure.2. From which, it can be
concluded that the system states are asymptotically regulated
to zero. Figure.3 shows the graphical representation of the
linear and angular velocities, the amplitude of the control
input u0 (wj ) is bounded by 0.5. Figure.4 shows the trajectory
of the robot stabilized at the origin point. The system has
proven to be globally uniformly stable (GUS).
B. Robust Tracking Control
In this sub-section, the tracking problem is addressed
again for the known time-varying reference trajectories. The
tracking error of the mobile robot can be attained as same
as equation (7). To simplify the problem, ejx = 0 is
selected as the first switching surface. For this condition,
derivative, the equation can be written as:
V̇ =ejy ėjy
V̇ =ejy [−wj ejx + vjr sinejθ ] (19)
= − ejx ejy wj − vjr ejy sin(atan(vjr ejy )

Fig. 3. Control Inputs Fig. 5. NMR Error Trajectories Convergence

288
 Fig. 8. Error Trajectories Convergence using High Gain Observer

Fig. 6. Control Inputs

where ejθ = sin(atan(vjr ejy ) chose as switching function.

V̇ < 0 if vjr ejy sin(atan(vjr ejy ) > 0. Notice that, when
ejx converges to 0 and ejθ converges to atan(vjr ejy ). Then
this switching function can be obtained as:
s1 =ejx
(20)
s2 =ejθ + atan(vjr ejy )
The invariant manifold can be defined as σ̇ = ksat(σ). This
approach not only forces the system states to reach the de-
sired trajectory but also specifies the dynamic characteristics
of the system. The equation of the control law expresses as: Fig. 9. Control Inputs using HGO

vj =ejy w + vjr cosejθ + k1 sat(σ1 )

ejy vjr
wj =wjr + vjr
˙ + vjr sinejθ + From the above analysis, it can be observed that σ(0) = 0
1 + (vjr ejy )2 1 + (vjr ejy )2
and V̇ ≤ 0, the system states converges on the sliding surface
k2 sat(σ2 ) σ(t) and the trajectory tracking errors goes to zero in finite
(21)
time.
1) Stability Analysis: This section discusses the stability
2) Implementation: This section shows the implementa-
analysis using lyapunov function. Taking lyapunov function
tion of the design control scheme based on SMC through
as: V = 12 σ T σ. By taking derivative the equation can be
simulation for time-varying reference trajectories. The NMR
expressed as:
V̇ =σ T [−ksat(σ)] initial state is being set as p(0) = [2, 1, 1]T whereas, the
controller parameter in the equation (21) is defined as k1 =
V̇ = − k |σ| (22) −8, k2 = −8. The circular motion is used in this simulation
V̇ < 0 is considered as the reference trajectory. The linear velocity is

Fig. 7. Reference Tracking in X-Y Plane Fig. 10. Time-Varying Reference Tracking

289
undeviating while the angular velocity is bounded at circular
motion. Figure.5 shows the position error trajectories of
NMR approaches towards zero. Figure.6 shows the control
input which is continually varying as to match up with the
reference velocities. Figure.7 shows the trajectory tracking
results of NMR for the circular reference. The robot follows
the reference trajectory well in time. According to the sim-
ulation results for the circular motion, the motion of NMR
remains in a stable position, while it generates the position
tracking error simultaneously. That is, the position of the
robot converges to the desired trajectory. This demonstrates
the efficacy of the sliding control algorithm hypothetically.
Compared to the other solution mention in the reference
section, this control law remains in a certain bound, and the
switch function varies is parameter according to the reference
trajectory.
IV. ROBUST O UTPUT F EEDBACK CONTROL D ESIGN
In this section, we extend the proposed control scheme to
an output feedback by using high gain observer (HGO). An
output feedback controller is used to estimate the position
and velocity of the NMR. It has been recognized that a
HGO can improve the transient properties of the proposed
controller. Proposed state feedback control equation (17) can
be implemented in term of an observer-based control as:
u = (CB)−1 (CAX̂ − asign(σ)) + k0 x̂0 (23)
where the required state variable is estimated by the HGO.
These new error variables can be written as:
h1
ė˜jx =wj ẽjy + vj − vjr cosẽjθ + ẽjx

h2
˜
ėjy = − wj ẽjx + vjr sinẽjθ + ẽjy (24)
 Space,”pp,429-435 International Journal of Control, Automation and
h3
ė˜jθ =wj + ẽjθ
 Observer based Kinematic Tracking Controllers for a Unicycle-typoe
in which h1 ...h3 are the respective gains and  is the design
parameter to ensure the convergence of the estimation error
towards zero and also used in order to reduce the chattering
effect [7]. We use these states as a replacement of the actual
states in the control equation (21). It can be shown that
the output feedback control equation (23) can improve the
performance of the SMC based control (17), by selectively
choosing the design parameter.
1) Implementation: This section provides the simulation
results to show the robustness of the desired propose ap-
proach. The simulation performance is illustrated on Sine
trajectory, to evaluate the performance result of SMC with
the HGO. The NMR gains and parameter use for simulation
in the desired control law are selected as k1 = k2 = k3 = 10,
hi , i  [1, 3] are set using hi = 6.
The sine trajectory is defined by the following equations,
which can be stated as:
vi = sin(0.005π) + 1, wi = 0.1sin(0.02π) (25)
Figure.8 describes the position tracking trajectories of the
NMR, which are going to zero in real time. It is more robust
290
than the state feedback formation control result discussed
in the earlier sub-section Figure.9 shows the velocities of
the tracking control, which ensures the stability. It can
be seen that there are fewer perturbations in HGO based
estimated control input. Figure.10 demonstrates the tracking
performance of NMR. It can conclude the tracking is well
stable and robust compared to existing techniques.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we present a systematic approach to design
a robust trajectory tracking control for NMR. We use prop-
erties of the system structure to design a suitable control
law for point to point state feedback tracking control. The
proposed control scheme provides for desired robustness
properties in presence of the parametric variations, in the
region of interest. The state-feedback control scheme is
extended to output feedback by incorporating a High Gain
Observer. With the help of Lyapunov analysis and appropri-
ate simulations, it is shown that the proposed output feedback
control scheme achieves the required control objectives and
provides for the desired performance in the presence of
parametric variations.
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