Guiding Vector Field Algorithm for a Moving Path Following Problem

This paper presents a guidance algorithm solving the problem of moving path following, that is, steering a mobile robot to a curvilinear path attached to a moving frame. The nonholonomic robot is described by the unicycle-type model under the influence of some constant exogenous disturbance. The desired path may be an arbitrary smooth curve in its implicit form, that is, a level set of some known smooth function. The path following algorithm employs a guiding vector field, whose integral curves converge to the trajectory. Experiments with a real fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as well as numerical simulations are presented, illustrating the performance of the proposed path following control algorithm

A guiding vector field algorithm for path following control of nonholonomic mobile robots

In this paper we propose an algorithm for path following control of the nonholonomic mobile robot based on the idea of the guiding vector field (GVF). The desired path may be an arbitrary smooth curve in its implicit form, that is, a level set of a predefined smooth function. Using this function and the robot’s kinematic model, we design a GVF, whose integral curves converge to the trajectory. A nonlinear motion controller is then proposed which steers the robot along such an integral curve, bringing it to the desired path. We establish global convergence conditions for our algorithm and demonstrate its applicability and performance by experiments with wheeled robots

Robotic Path Following in 3D Using a Guiding Vector Field

Path following serves as one of the most basic functions for industrial or mobile robots used in different scenarios. In this paper, a general 3D guiding vector field (GVF) is analyzed rigorously that extends the existing results on 2D GVFs. The desired 3D path is described by the intersection of two zero-level surfaces in their implicit forms, which can be used to describe various desired paths. Although the same path can be represented by the intersection of different surfaces, convergence to the path is not always guaranteed. However, under some mild assumptions, the existence of solutions and the local and global convergence results are proved rigorously for both bounded and unbounded desired paths. Examples and counter-examples from simulations further validate the theoretical results