Abstract
This paper describes a control system for an autonomous robot cart designed to operate in well-structured environments such as offices and factories. The onboard navigation system comprises a reference-state generator, an error-feedback controller, plus cart location sensing using odometry. There is a convenient separation between the path guidance and control logic. Under normal operating conditions, the controller ensures that the errors between the measured and reference states are small. These errors only exceed set limits if the cart is malfunctioning. Major hardware failures can be detected in this way and failsafe procedures invoked. Results on the control system performance derived from a computer simulation of the cart and its operating environment, and from an experimental cart, indicate that it can provide reliable, accurate, and safe operation of autonomous robot carts.
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© 1990 AT&T
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Nelson, W.L., Cox, I.J. (1990). Local Path Control for an Autonomous Vehicle. In: Cox, I.J., Wilfong, G.T. (eds) Autonomous Robot Vehicles. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8997-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8997-2_4
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8999-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-8997-2
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