Title: On integral sliding mode control for a unicycle

Authors: Jian-Xin Xu; Zhao-Qin Guo; Tong Heng Lee

Addresses: Graduate School for Integrative Science and Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore ' Graduate School for Integrative Science and Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore ' Graduate School for Integrative Science and Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract: In this paper we present an integral sliding mode controller (ISMC) that can stabilise an underactuated unicycle system. The unicycle consists of a wheel and a saddle that is modelled as an inverse pendulum. The control objective for a unicycle is to achieve position control of the wheel while keeping the pendulum at the balanced position that is an unstable equilibrium. The only driving force is the torque applied to the shaft of the wheel. The proposed ISMC consists of an integral sliding surface, a switching term, a nonlinear compensation term and a LQR stabilising controller for the sliding manifold. The ISMC can effectively reject the matched disturbance and reduce the influence from unmatched disturbances, which is verified through rigorous analysis and intensive numerical validation.

Keywords: ISMC; integral SMC; sliding mode control; unicycles; underactuated systems; LQR stabilising control; vehicle control; modelling; inverse pendulum; position control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2014.057801

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2014 Vol.64 No.1, pp.101 - 116

Received: 08 Feb 2012
Accepted: 21 Dec 2012

Published online: 30 Oct 2014 *

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