A Nonlinear Moving Target Tracking Control of Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robots

This paper considers the problem of designing a feedback controller for a nonholonomic unicycle-type wheeled mobile robot to track a moving target, such that the robot maintains a prescribed distance from the target, as well to follow the target trajectory. We consider the case when the trajectory of the target is unknown in advance, and the only information for the relative position and orientation between the robot and the target used for feedback control, is obtained from an onboard 2D laser scanner. A nonlinear control is proposed, which guarantees ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system, analyzed by using Lyapunov stability theory. Simulation and experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.