Adaptive Leader-Follower Formation Control of Wheeled Mobile Robots via Composite Techniques

This article presents a composite leader-follower formation control strategy for wheeled mobile robots based on the leader-follower theory, such that the desired formation and the trajectory tracking can be achieved simultaneously. As for the leader, a coordinated double closed-loop control strategy is presented where the model predictive control (MPC) -based trajectory tracking controller is adopted to achieve the motion control and the adaptive terminal sliding mode control (ATSMC)-based speed controller is used to achieve the velocity tracking. Meanwhile, the MPC formation controllers with state constrained are presented for followers to keep the desired formation and track to the leader. Finally, the simulation results verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control strategy.