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LINEAR MODELLING AND IDENTIFICATION OF A MOBILE
ROBOT WITH DIFFERENTIAL DRIVE
Patr
´
ıcia N. Guerra
∗
Pablo J. Alsina
∗
Adelardo A. D. Medeiros
∗
Ant
ˆ
onio P. Ara
´
ujo
∗
Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – Departament of Computer Engineering and Automation
UFRN-CT-DCA – Campus Universit
´
ario – 59072-970 Natal RN Brazil
Keywords:
Nonholonomic robots, robot control, stabilization control, linear modeling of robots.
Abstract:
This paper presents a modelling and identification method for a wheeled mobile robot, including the actuator
dynamics. Instead of the classic modelling approach, where the robot position coordinates (x, y) are utilized as
state variables (resulting in a non linear model), the proposed discrete model is based on the travelled distance
increment ∆l. Thus, the resulting model is linear and time invariant and it can be identified through classical
methods such as Recursive Least Mean Squares. This approach has a problem: ∆l can not directly measured.
In this paper, this problem is solved using an estimate
f
∆l based on a second order curve approximation.
Experimental data were colected and the proposed method was used to identify the model of a real robot.
1 INTRODUCTION
Usually, realistic mathematical models of mobile
robots are obtained through the physics laws that gov-
ern their behavior. Approaches applying artificial in-
telligence techniques to the input and output measure-
ments are also utilized. Several model types were de-
veloped for non holonomic mobile robots. LTI (linear
time invariant) models are usually obtained through
Taylor series linearization on only one point of opera-
tion of the system. A QLPV (quasi-linear parameter-
varying) model for a car-like robot is presented in the
literature (Economou et al., 2002).
The classic mathematical model of a mobile robot
has a structure similar to the mathematical model of
robot manipulators, so that techniques of parametric
identification developed for the latter can be adapted
for the former. However, most of these techniques as-
sume that robot speed and acceleration measurements
are available, which is not generally true.
Differently of the identification techniques for ma-
nipulators, enough discussed in the literature (Poignet
and Gautier, 2000; Efe et al., 1999), the mobile
robot identification techniques have been less stud-
ied. An identification of the dynamic model of a
micro-robot using the recursive least mean square
1
The authors received partial financial support of the
Brazilian agencies CAPES and CNPq.
method (RLMS) is presented by Pereira (Pereira,
2000; Pereira et al., 2000). As the model to be iden-
tified through RLMS is non linear, a simplification is
used: the orientation θ(t), which is time-variant, is
considered constant during each sampling period.
In this work a linear (not a linearized one) dynamic
model for mobile robots is presented. The proposed
model is equivalent to the non linear dynamic model,
commonly adopted for non-holonomic mobile robots
(Yamamoto et al., 2003). The proposed model uses
the variable ∆l, distance traveled by the robot during
a sampling interval, instead of the traditional mod-
elling, where its absolute position is used (x, y). The
problem due to the impossibility of measuring the
traveled distance ∆l during a sampling period is over-
come through the use of an estimate,
f
∆l, of this value.
The identification of this discrete dynamic model is
attained using a classic method of identification of lin-
ear systems, the recursive least mean squares.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Sec-
tion 2 describes the robot and its modelling by the
equivalent linear and non-linear models. Section 3
presents the proposed calculation method for a nu-
meric value of the immeasurable variable ∆l. In sec-
tion 4, experimental results validating the proposed
approach are shown. Finally, in section 5, the ob-
tained results are discussed and the conclusions and
future perspectives are presented.
263
Guerra P., Alsina P., Medeiros A. and Araújo A. (2004).
LINEAR MODELLING AND IDENTIFICATION OF A MOBILE ROBOT WITH DIFFERENTIAL DRIVE.
In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, pages 263-269
DOI: 10.5220/0001140602630269
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