Path-Tracking for a Carlike Mobile Robot

Path tracking for a carlike mobile robot is considered by assuming a motion that is planar and exempt from sideslippage, by taking into account both the dynamic and the kinematic properties of the vehicle, and by adopting a modified notion of path tracking. It is shown that a controller capable of tracking an assigned path may be computed by means of a memoryless function of the lateral, heading, and velocity tracking-offsets. If these offsets are kept small, the path is a straight line or a circular arc and the assigned tracking velocity is constant, then the controller may be given a simple, linear, time invariant and decoupled PID structure.