Modeling and feedback control of nonholonomic mobile vehicles

A complete dynamic model of mobile vehicles moving on nonplanar surfaces under nonholonomic and dynamic constraints is presented. The kinematic control of such systems is examined, and the invariant manifold technique is introduced for steering a nonholonomic mobile vehicle to an invariant manifold which is relatively locally-locally controllable. A closed-loop control strategy based on the invariant manifold technique is formulated and applied to the control of nonholonomic vehicles. Tracking control of such vehicles is demonstrated with both holonomic and nonholonomic reference trajectories