Autonomous mobile robot control in operational space with torque saturation, slippage and tip-over avoidance

Motion control of mobile robots, when autonomy is needed, requires the ability of operational space control. Exact input output linearization of the mobile robot dynamics facilitates the design of the operational space control but requires verification of sufficient smoothness condition. Torque saturation of actuators, slippage avoidance of the wheels with regard to the ground and tip-over of the overall mobile robot are to be avoided not only for satisfying the smoothness conditions, but also for keeping the ability to control the mobile robot in general. In this paper, predictive control is used for avoidance of the occurrence of these events by modifying the input commands such that the geometric path planning result is conserved and the smoothness condition for exact linearization is not violated. The performance of the input command (computed jerk) modification is verified by comparison with the corresponding output jerks of the mobile robot in operational space