Regulation of a Nonholonomic Dynamic Wheeled Mobile Robot with Parametric Modeling Uncertainty using Lyapunov Functions

This paper addresses the problem of regulating the dynamic model of a nonholonomic wheeled robot of the unicycle type to a point with a desired orientation. A simple controller is derived that yields global convergence of the trajectories of the closed loop system in the presence of parametric modeling uncertainty. Controller design relies on a non smooth coordinate transformation in the original state space, followed by the derivation of a Lyapunov-based, adaptive, smooth control law in the new coordinates. Convergence to the origin is analyzed and simulation results are presented.