Switching linear path following for bounded curvature car-like vehicles

Abstract Building on previous work of Canudas de Wit et al. a nonlinear path following controller for the kinematic model of a car-like robot with bounded curvature is designed. Given a bounded curvature reference path and an upper bound on the maximum curvature that the robot is able to drive, the proposed feedback solution guarantees asymptotic convergence to the assigned path with a Lyapunov asymptotically stable error dynamics while always satisfying the curvature constraint. Thanks to the adaptive nature of the law, the controller gain tuning is made extremely easy and convergence speed is greatly improved with respect to the original fixed gain controller. Experimental tests have been performed on a differential drive mobile robot confirming the effectiveness of the solution.