Discontinuous feedback stabilization of wheeled mobile robots

The paper presents a systematic approach to the construction of feedback control for stabilization to set points for a class of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots. This approach does not necessitate conversion of the system model into a "chained form", and thus does not rely on any special transformation techniques. The feedback controls are piece-wise constant and the method is based on the introduction of a set of guiding functions whose sum vanishes only at the origin. The guiding functions are not Lyapunov functions, however, a comparison of their values allows us to determine a desired direction of system motion and permits us to construct a sequence of controls such that the sum of the guiding functions decreases in an average sense.