Stable switching contour-following controller for wheeled mobile robots

In this paper a switching controller for mobile robots is presented that allows the contour-following of objects the size of which is at least comparable to that of the robot. The controller uses the information from distance sensors and is based on a wall-following controller described in the paper. The stability of the overall switching system is proved by using a common Lyapunov function. Experimental results in a Pioneer III unicycle-like mobile robot are provided to show the feasibility of the proposed control strategy