Lyapunov theory vs. sliding mode in trajectory tracking for non-holonomic mobile robots

In this paper, trajectory tracking for nonholonomic mobile robots is addressed. Two strategies are proposed: the first is based on Lyapunov stability theory, while the second adopts sliding mode control. The main difference between the two proposed strategies is that the time required for the error to converge towards zero is not a constraint in the first strategy while it is limited in the second strategy. The results of simulations and of the validation on a real system are presented. Comparison between the two strategies is based on the performance and on the efficiency of the tracking.