ABSTRACT

The Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems has built several vehicles with ultra-maneuverable steering capability. Each drive wheel on the vehicle can be independently set at any angle with respect to the vehicle body and the vehicles can rotate or translate in any direction. The vehicles are expected to operate on a wide range of terrain surfaces and problems arise in effectively controlling changes in wheel steering angles as the vehicle transitions from one extreme running surface to another. Controllers developed for smooth surfaces may not perform well on rough or .sticky. surfaces and vice versa. The approach presented involves the development of a model of the steering motor with the static and viscous friction of the steering motor load included. The model parameters are then identified through a series of environmental tests using a vehicle wheel assembly and the model thus obtained is used for control law development. Four different robust controllers were developed and evaluated through simulation and vehicle testing. The findings of this development will be presented.

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