Optimal controller comparison using Pareto fronts

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-133).New design methods in Control Systems are regularly proposed. These new methods are typically compared to existing methods in a focused manner that highlights certain criteria, but may neglect other criteria. This thesis investigates the usefulness of Level Diagram visualisation and Performance Measures for Pareto fronts as tools for comparing modern control schemes in a more robust and objective manner

Integrated path control for autonomous systems based on an artificial potential field and sliding mode control

This paper introduces a new integrated path control strategy (combined path planning and motion control) for autonomous systems of arbitrary dimension. A harmonic artificial potential field is used to specify admissible trajectories leading around obstacles. Using a sliding mode controller, motion is generated along the gradient lines of the potential field, avoiding collisions with the obstacles. The computational complexity of the proposed method is extremely low, which makes it very suitable for on-line applications.The mthodology is applied to mobile robots moving amidst known obstacles. Although at most two obstacles are considered at each time instance, the goal point is approached continuously, following to a reasonably short path. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the utility of this new strategy