Finite‐time tracking control of a nonholonomic mobile robot

In this paper, the finite‐time tracking problem is investigated for a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot in a fifth‐order dynamic model. We consider the whole tracking error system as a cascaded system. Two continuous global finite‐time stabilizing controllers are designed for a second‐order subsystem and a third‐order subsystem respectively. Then finite‐time stability results for cascaded systems are employed to prove that the closed‐loop system satisfies the finite‐time stability. Thus the closed‐loop system can track the reference trajectory in finite‐time when the desired velocities satisfy some conditions. In particular, we discuss the control gains selection for the third‐order finite‐time controller and give sufficient conditions by using Lyapunov and backstepping techniques. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.