Trajectory Tracking Nonlinear Hybrid Control of Automated Guided Vehicles

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs), so necessary in industrial environments, require precise control of trajectory tracking to make accurate stops at logistics stations, such as loading stations, or to pick up or drop off trolleys, pallets, or racks. This paper proposes a hybrid control architecture for trajectory tracking of a hybrid tricycle-differential AGV. The control strategy combines conventional proportional integral derivative (PID) control with advanced nonlinear Lyapunov control (LPC). The LPC is used for trajectory tracking while the PID is used for speed control of the robot. The stability of the controller is demonstrated for any differentiable trajectory. When a PID optimized with genetic algorithms is compared with the proposed controller for several trajectories, the LPC outperforms it in all cases.