Abstract
The paper suggests a compound control that combines nonlinear flatness,
active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), and sliding mode control
(SMC). By employing the differential flatness methodology, the standard
under-actuated wheeled mobile robot model is converted into a fully
actuated one. Utilizing this model as a basis, a sliding feedback
controller is suggested to address the issue of uncertainties associated
with wheel slip and wind. However, as the uncertainties increase, a
higher control input is required, resulting in an undesired chattering
phenomenon. To reduce chattering in SMC, a boundary layer surrounding
the switching surface is employed, and a continuous law is implemented
within the boundary. The boundary layer width plays an important role in
improving robustness and eliminating chatter. Indeed, increasing the
thickness of the boundary layer significantly reduces chattering, but it
may lead to a loss of robustness performance achieved by the
discontinuous control provided by SMC. To resolve this problem, active
disturbance rejection control is combined with boundary layer sliding
mode control. When utilizing the ADRC method, the lumped uncertainties
are estimated via an extended state observer and eliminated within the
feedback loop. The newly obtained feedback control combines the
advantages of boundary layer SMC and ADRC to achieve practical control
and robust tracking performance. The stability properties exhibited by
the closed-loop system are rigorously established through the
application of Lyapunov theory. In conclusion, a series of simulations
has been conducted to compare and evaluate the efficiency of the
presented robust tracking controller against other existing control
methods.