Path Tracking and Obstacle Avoidance of Car-Like Mobile Robots in an Intelligent Space Using Mixed H2/H∞ Decentralized Control

In this paper, the trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance of a car-like mobile robot (CLMR) within an intelligent space via mixed H₂ / H_infin decentralized control was developed. For implementing (dynamic) obstacle avoidance and trajectory tracking, two distributed CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras were established to realize the pose of the CLMR and the position of the obstacle. Based on the authority of these two CCD cameras, a suitable reference command for the proposed controller of the CLMR is planned by the information of the CCD camera with higher authority and then transmitted to the CLMR by a wireless device. The features of the proposed control included smaller energy consumption with bounded tracking error, attenuation of output disturbance, and improvement of control performance. The suggested control system contained two processors with multiple sampling rates. One personal computer (PC) was employed to capture the image of CLMR and obstacle, to plan a reference command for the CLMR, and then to transmit the reference command to the CLMR. The other was a DSP (digital signal processor) implementing in the CLMR to control two DC motors. A sequence of experiments was carried out to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control system.