Research on a Robust Adaptive Controller with Disturbance Observer for Wheeled Mobile Robot

Abstract

This paper presents a robust adaptive controller for wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) designed to effectively compensate for disturbances and system uncertainties. The proposed control scheme includes an inner loop with a PID controller for wheels speed control and an outer loop with a disturbance observer to track the trajectory and minimize position errors. The outer loop control signal is derived based on the WMR's dynamic and kinematic models, while the disturbance observer adapts to uncertainties and external disturbances. The system's stability is proven in sense of Lyapunov theory. The performance of the proposed controller is validated through simulations, which show significant improvements in trajectory tracking compared to existing method. Furthermore, experimental results confirm that the controller maintains stability and robustness under varying load conditions and different trajectory paths, demonstrating its effectiveness in real-world applications