Design and Implementation of Integral Sliding-Mode Control on an Underactuated Two-Wheeled Mobile Robot

This paper presents a novel implementation of an integral sliding-mode controller (ISMC) on a two-wheeled mobile robot (2 WMR). The 2 WMR consists of two wheels in parallel and an inverse pendulum, which is inherently unstable. It is the first time that the sliding-mode control method is employed for real-time control of a 2 WMR platform and several critical issues are addressed. First, the 2 WMR is underactuated, which uses only one actuator to achieve position control of the wheels while balancing the pendulum around the upright position. ISMC is suitable for control of the underactuated 2 WMR, because ISMC has an extra degree of freedom in control when sliding mode is achieved. In this paper, we utilize this extra degree of freedom to implement a linear nominal controller, which is found adequate in stabilizing the sliding manifold in a range around the equilibrium. Second, the 2 WMR system is in presence of both matched and unmatched uncertainties. The implemented ISMC, with an integral sliding surface and a switching term, is able to completely nullify the influence from the matched uncertainties. The implemented linear nominal controller stabilizes the sliding manifold that is subject to unmatched uncertainties. Third, references design are addressed when implementing ISMC on the 2 WMR. The effectiveness of ISMC is verified through intensive simulation and experiment results.