An anti-trackslip path tracking algorithm for steel box girder inspection robot based on model prediction control

An anti-trackslip path tracking algorithm for steel box girder inspection robot based on model prediction (MPC) is proposed in this paper. This algorithm is oriented to the actual needs of the automatic inspection of steel box girder of super large bridges. It solves the slippage problem of the inspection robot because of the wear of driving wheels and slippery contact. The kinematic models of longitudinal and lateral slippage were established and corrected after analyzing the robot sliding control and slippage parameter estimation methods. The robot system error dynamic model and the error model based on state extension were proposed by overall considering control constraints. The robot’s optimized objective function was constructed to convert MPC problem into quadratic programming. Finally, path tracking simulations were performed on the inspection robot under pure rolling and sliding conditions, respectively, using the improved MPC (IMPC) algorithm and the front-wheel feedback algorithm. The comparison showed that the IMPC algorithm exceeded the front-wheel feedback algorithm based on geometrical tracking in tracking precision, proving the effectiveness of the proposed IMPC in anti-trackslip path tracking.