Cross-coupling motion controller for mobile robots

The design and implementation of a cross-coupling motion controller for a differential-drive mobile robot is described. A new concept, the most significant error, is introduced as the control design objective. Cross-coupling control directly minimizes the most significant error by coordinating the motion of the two drive wheels. The cross-coupling controller has excellent disturbance rejection. This is advantageous when the robot is not loaded symmetrically or has large friction in its drive mechanism, and especially when it is instructed to follow curved paths. Experimental results show that cross-coupling control yields substantially smaller position and orientation errors than conventional methods.<>