Two-Step NonLinear Optimal Control Approach for Coal Mine Rescue Robot Navigation

Coal mine rescue robot (CMRR) places an important role when any disaster happens in underground mine. However, they have not yet an effective approach for rescue robot navigation and location in unknown and complex environment. In this paper, a new nonlinear optimal control synthesis method, called the two-step method, is developed to improve optimality and to secure stability of the CMRR navigation. The first step is to linearize the system and solve the associated linear control problem; the second step is to numerically adjust the solution from first step to enforce optimality and stability constraints. The experimental studies have been made to check validity of the proposed method; the results show that the two-step method can yield optimal trajectory for CMRR in the unknown environment.