A finite-time path-tracking control algorithm for nonholonomic mobile robots with unknown dynamics and subject to wheel slippage/skid disturbances

Path planning and tracking control are two performance-critical tasks for wheeled mobile robots, particularly when nonholonomic constraints are imposed on robots in dynamically uncertain conditions. Accomplishing certain performance and safety considerations related to path-tracking, such as global stability, transient performance, and smooth finite-time convergence, becomes more difficult for nonholonomic robots. This paper is concerned with proposing a new adaptive robust finite-time tracking control approach for a large class of differential drive autonomous nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots (NWMRs) that are subject to structured uncertainties and extraneous disturbances with fully unknown dynamics. For this purpose, nonlinear kinodynamics of a type of rear-wheel drive NWMRs are developed by incorporating the skid/slippage constituents of the wheel motion. Then, a path-tracking controller is proposed using a continuous finite-time adaptive integral sliding mode control coupled with an integral backstepping approach (FTAISM-IBC). For the adaptive controller design, the entire nonlinear dynamics of the robot, including nonlinear vector functions and control gain functions, together with extraneous disturbances, are estimated by leveraging the universal approximation capabilities of radial basis neural networks (RBFNNs). The finite-time stability proof is presented by utilizing the Lyapunov stability theorem. Furthermore, the adaptive gains are derived to ensure the finite-time stability of the system subject to unknown functions, parametric variations, and unknown but bounded disturbances. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed controller is evaluated through simulations in terms of several key performance indicators against several reported studies.