A novel dynamic three-level tracking controller for mobile robots considering actuators and power stage subsystems: Experimental assessment

In order to solve the trajectory tracking task in a wheeled mobile robot (WMR), a dynamic three-level controller is presented in this paper. The controller considers the mechanical structure, actuators, and power stage subsystems. Such a controller is designed as follows: At the high level is a dynamic control for the WMR (differential drive type). At the medium level is a PI current control for the actuators (DC motors). Lastly, at the low level is a differential flatness-based control for the power stage (DC/DC Buck power converters). The feasibility, robustness, and performance in closed-loop of the proposed controller are validated on a DDWMR prototype through Matlab-Simulink, the real-time interface ControlDesk, and a DS1104 board. The obtained results are experimentally assessed with a hierarchical tracking controller, recently reported in literature, that was also designed on the basis of the mechanical structure, actuators, and power stage subsystems. Although both controllers are robust when parametric disturbances are taken into account, the dynamic three-level tracking controller presented in this paper is better than the hierarchical tracking controller reported in literature.