Control barrier functions applied to an omnidirectional mobile robot
Resumo
Control barrier functions (CBFs) have been extensively studied recently and are related to the safety of control systems. Safety is represented by constraints on the states and outputs of the system. The final control framework integrates the stabilization/tracking objectives, described by a control Lyapunov function (CLF) or a nominal control input, and the safety constraints, described by CBFs, through a quadratic programming (QP). The objective and the main contribution of this work is the application of this control framework to the Robotino mobile robot (Festo), which is used in several educational institutions in Brazil and worldwide, and unlike many didactic mobile robots, it features a more robust structure, higher actuation power, and is omnidirectional, making it more compatible with real-world applications. Several studies in the literature propose controlling the Robotino to satisfy stabilization/tracking objectives; however, none of these studies apply CBFs to ensure that safety constraints are respected. The results, obtained through computational simulations, demonstrate that both the stabilization/tracking objectives, represented by reference trajectories, and the safety constraints, represented by position and coordinate constraints of the robotic system, were satisfied.
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