Speed control of differentially driven wheeled mobile robots—model‐based adaptive approach

In this paper, the issue concerning model‐based adaptive control for a differentially driven wheeled mobile robot is addressed. By choosing state variables directly related to its speeds (linear and angular), the robot's dynamic model becomes simple with good properties. The controller takes account of the robot dynamics and the coupling between the motions of two wheels, and thus achieves better speed tracking than commonly used model‐free PID controller does. The effectiveness of the model free controllers (mostly PID) in some situations is also discussed. Simulation studies are done to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.