Proceedings of the 10th

World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation

July 6-8, 2012, Beijing, China

Trajectory tracking control for mobile robot

based on the fuzzy sliding mode*
XIE Mu-jun and LI Li-ting

WANG Zhi-qian

School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Changchun University of Technology
Changchun, china
xiemujun@mail.ccut.edu.cn

Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics

Chinese Academy of Sciences
Changchun, China
zhiqian_wang@sina.com

Abstract - The trajectory tracking control problem of the

uncertain mobile robot with nonholonomic constraints is
analyzed. Sliding mode control is presented based on the
kinematics models analysis. Switching function of sliding model
control is designed according to back-stepping method. Trending
law control is selected to improve the system dynamic
performance. In order to solve the constant speed problem
caused by conventional trending law control, fuzzy control is
used to adjust trending speed in the real time. The simulation
results demonstrate that the fuzzy sliding mode controller
improves the rapidity of trajectory tracking, and reduces the
tracking error and the chattering of the control output.
Index Terms - mobile robot; trajectory tracking; trending law;
Fuzzy sliding model control

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, with the rapid development of
technology, Wheeled Mobile Robots (WMR) is applied
widely. Broadly speaking, any wheeled mobile organizations,
such as car, belong to the category of wheeled mobile robots.
Because of the existence of nonholonomic constraint, scholars
from the domestic to foreign become more interest in the
control of WMR. Trajectory tracking is one of the main
problems of the WMR control, and accurate trajectory
tracking is also the most important premise for WMR to finish
work. However, due to the severe nonlinear and the nonintegrity of WMR, the trajectory tracking control has become
a certain challenge [1].

Fig.1 mobile robot posture error coordinates schematic diagram

The state of mobile robot is signified by the coordinate

position of M , which is the midpoint of axis between two
driving wheels.
Suppose P = ( x y )T , q = (v )T , where, ( x, y ) is the
position of the mobile robot, is the angle between the going
direction of the mobile robot and X axis, v and are line
velocity and angular velocity of the mobile robot, which are
control inputs in the kinematics model.
Kinematical equation of the mobile robot is derived as
follows:
x cos

p = y = sin
 0

Fig.1,

the

mobile

robot

moves

from

p = (x

y )T

to pr = (xr yr r )T . In the new coordinate system X e Ye ,

coordinate of the mobile robot is shown as:
pe = ( xe

ye e )T

(2)

here e = r .
Set the angle between new coordinate system X e Ye and
coordinate system X Y as . According to coordinate
transformation formula, the error equation to describe mobile
robot posture is gotten:

This work is partially supported by Jilin Province nature science research project #201115151.

978-1-4673-1398-8/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

(1)

Considering a reference car with posture instruction

pr = ( xr yr r )T and velocity instruction qr = (vr r )T .In

II. KINEMATICS MODELING FOR MOBILE ROBOT

Mobile robot researched in this paper belongs to
differential drive type mobile robot. The two front wheels are
the driving wheels, which are driven by a motor respectively.
If the speed of two driving motors is different, the two front
wheels (left-wheel and right-wheel) would produce
differential driven, then it can realize turning. The speed
difference decides the direction of motion, and the average
speed would decide the rapidity of motion. The rear small
wheel, as a caster wheel, plays a supporting role when the
mobile robot loses balance in sports, so it can be ignored in the
kinematics modeling [2]. The mobile robot posture error
coordinates schematic diagram is as Fig1.

0 q
1

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 xe cos

pe = ye = sin
0
e

sin
cos
0

0 xr x

0 yr y
1 r

(3)

Calculating the derivatives of these formulas (3), then the

posture error differential equation is obtained:
xe ye v + vr cos e

p e = y e = xe + vr sin e


r

function ( s ) =

is used to replace the symbolic function. The expression is as

following:
si = i

(4)

III. CONVENTIONAL SLIDING MODE CONTROLLER DESIGN

( x) = x sin(arctan x ) 0 , only when x = 0 , then = is

The control law is gotten:

[3]

tenable .
According to the Lemma 1 and the idea of back-stepping,
sliding mode switching function is designed. The design
process can be shown as the following [4]:
When xe = 0 , this Lyapunov function:
1 2
ye
2

ye w + vr cos e + 1 1

1 + 1

(vr sin e ) + 2 2
vr +
q = = wr +
vr
ye
s2 + 2
w

(1 +
xe )

ye

(5)

Assume e = arctan(vr ye ) , then:

where,

Vy = ye y e = y e ( xe + vr sin e )
= y e xe + vr y e sin( arctan(vr y e ))

(6)

v r

ye
1 + (v r y e )

(10)

vr
=
.
ye 1 + (vr ye ) 2

Proof for the stability [5-6]:

1
1
Take V = s12 + s22 as Lyapunov functions.
2
2
s2
s2
And then V = s1s1 + s2 s2 = 1 1 2 2 0
s1 + 1 s2 + 2

= y e xe vr ye sin(arctan(v r y e ))

vr ye sin( arctan(vr ye )) 0 (only when vr ye = 0 , this

= is tenable), so V 0 .
y

Conclusion: If xe becomes to zero and e becomes

So the system is stable.

to arctan(vr ye ) , then ye can astringe to zero.

So the switching function is as following:
xe

s = 1 =

s2 e + arctan(vr ye)

(9)

ye v + vr cos e

r + v vr + y ( xe + vr sin e )
r
e

In view of the multiple inputs and nonlinear of

kinematics model of the mobile robot, the method of backstepping is used to design switching function.
Lemma 1: For any x R and x < , there is

Vy =

(8)

s1

1
s
s1 + 1
s = 1 =

s2 2 s 2

s 2 + 2

x e

=  


+
+
v
y

e
r
e

vr
ye

ye e )T = 0 .

si
si + i

Set = arctan(v r y e ) , according to (4) and (7), then:

According to the kinematics model of the mobile robot,

the goal of trajectory tracking is to find a control
input q = (v )T . It would ensure pe = ( xe ye e )T being
bounded and lim ( xe

si
(where i is positive decimal, i = 1,2 )
si + i

IV. FUZZY SLIDING MODE CONTROLLER DESIGN

(7)

In the equal velocity trending law s = signs ( > 0 ),

means trending velocity. The bigger the parameter is, the

The sliding mode controller is designed to make

s1 0 s2 0 , then xe is towards zero and e towards

faster trending motion from system status to sliding surface is,

and the stronger chattering is; the smaller the parameter is, the
weaker the chattering is, and the slower the trending motion is.
In order to solve this problem, fuzzy control law is brought
into sliding mode control to adjust trending velocity in the
real time. When the moving point is far from the sliding
surface, the trending velocity is bigger. When the moving
point is close to the sliding surface, the trending velocity

arctan(vr ye ) , thereby ye 0 and e 0 .

The equal velocity trending law is used to ensure the
dynamic quality of normal movement period. Assume
s = signs . In order to weaken chattering, the continuous

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becomes small, but it isnt zero. This will not only shorten the
trending time, but also can reduce the chattering effectively,
and achieve a faster and better effect [7-8].
For the switching function designed in formula (7), s1 is

taken as the input variable of the fuzzy controller, and 1 as

output variable. Define the language value as: {Very Small
(VS), Small(S), Medium (M), Big (B), and Very Big (VB)}.
The fuzzy subset, which is used to describe the language value
of the input variable and output variable, is {VS, S, M, B,
VB}.The range of s1 is [0, 3] and 1 is [0,100]. The fuzzy
control rules are as follows:
Ri: if s1 is Ai, then 1 is Bi.
In this paper, the rule table is as follows.

a. Conventional sliding mode control

b. Fuzzy sliding mode control
Fig.3 Y axis orientation error

TABLE I
CHART OF CONTROL REGULARITY

|s1|
1

VS

VB

VS

VB

a. Conventional sliding mode control

b. Fuzzy sliding mode control
Fig.4 orientation angle error

The centroid method is used to translate the output of the

fuzzy controller into exact value. The exact value is taken into
formula (9) to get the control input signal v and under the
fuzzy trending law.
V. SIMULATION EXPERIMENT
Tracking a circular motion trajectory is finished which
linear velocity and angular velocity are uniform. Suppose
v
r = 1.5 , vr = 1.5 , then r = r = 1.0 , and the posture

instruction Pr = ( xr

a. Conventional sliding mode control

b. Fuzzy sliding mode control
Fig.5 position tracking curve on circular trajectory

yr r ) is
xr = r cos(r t ) = cos t
T

yr = r sin(r t ) = sin t

r = r t = t
Here 1 = 2 = 0.03 , and posture error initial value is [3
0 0]. Conventional sliding mode control and fuzzy sliding
mode control is applied respectively, and the results under the
two cases are shown as the following figures.

a. Conventional sliding mode control

a. Conventional sliding mode control

b. Fuzzy sliding mode control
Fig.6 control input v

b. Fuzzy sliding mode control

a. Conventional sliding mode control
b. Fuzzy sliding mode control
Fig.7 control input

Fig.2 X axis orientation error

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According to the simulation results of the tracking

experiment, fuzzy sliding mode control can shorten the mobile
robot tracking time, at the same time, reduce the error in x
axis, y axis and course angle direction, and the chattering is
also decreased obviously by comparing with conventional
sliding mode control.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the Jilin Provincial
Science & Technology Department. The authors gratefully
acknowledge the funding of this study by nature science
research project (Grand No.201115151).
REFERENCES

VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the trajectory tracking of wheeled mobile
robot with nonholonomic constraint is discussed based on
sliding control. Considering multiple inputs and nonlinear
characteristics of the mobile robot kinematics model, backstepping method is used to design the switching function for
sliding mode control. In order to overcome the shortage of the
conventional trending law, the fuzzy is brought into sliding
mode controller. The simulation experiment is finished by
tracking a circular trajectory. The experiment results show that
the fuzzy sliding mode control can improve dynamic quality in
the mobile robot tracking process, reduce the tracking error
and the chattering. The validity of this control method is
verified.

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