Predictive fuzzy control for a mobile robot with nonholonomic constraints

Automatic control of a mobile robot with nonholonomic constraints normally depends on complex signal processing mechanisms, e.g. predictive control. This paper presents a new trajectory tracking method for a mobile robot by combining predictive control and fuzzy control. To overcome the time delay caused by the slow response of the sensor, the algorithm employs predictive control to predict the position and orientation of the robot. In addition, fuzzy control is adopted to deal with nonlinear characteristic of the system. The advantages of this predictive fuzzy controller include high reliability for a slow sensor response, small error of absolute tracking, availability of a linearized predictive model and simplified fuzzy rules, which reduce the computing complexity. In our experiments, we applied this control method to the soccer robot. Accuracy and convergent performance was compared with a traditional PID controller, as well as with a conventional fuzzy controller. The experiment results demonstrated the feasibility and advantages of this predictive fuzzy control on the trajectory tracking of a mobile robot