Sliding Mode Control for Safe Trajectory Tracking with Moving Obstacles Avoidance: Experimental Validation on Planar Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified control framework combining sliding mode control and safety barrier functions for robust trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance across various mobile robots, validated through simulations and real-world experiments.

Contribution

It is the first to design a sliding mode controller specifically for ground robots like the Ackermann drive, enhancing robustness and safety in dynamic environments.

Findings

Successful implementation on three different robot platforms.

Achieved asymptotic tracking despite external disturbances.

Validated effectiveness through real-world experiments and simulations.

Abstract

This paper presents a unified control framework for robust trajectory tracking and moving obstacle avoidance applicable to a broad class of mobile robots. By formulating a generalized kinematic transformation, we convert diverse vehicle dynamics into a strict feedback form, facilitating the design of a Sliding Mode Control (SMC) strategy for precise and robust reference tracking. To ensure operational safety in dynamic environments, the tracking controller is integrated with a Collision Cone Control Barrier Function (C3BF) based safety filter. The proposed architecture guarantees asymptotic tracking in the presence of external disturbances while strictly enforcing collision avoidance constraints. The novelty of this work lies in designing a sliding mode controller for ground robots like the Ackermann drive, which has not been done before. The efficacy and versatility of the approach are validated through numerical simulations and extensive real-world experiments on three distinct platforms: an Ackermann-steered vehicle, a differential drive robot, and a quadrotor drone. Video of the experiments are available at https://youtu.be/dWcxwum96vk