División de Ingeniería Mecatrónica, Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Huixquilucan, Tecnológico Nacional de México, Estado de México, Mexico
This research addresses the obstacle avoidance problem in wheeled mobile robots powered by renewable energy by considering all subsystems involved. A three-tier hierarchical controller is developed, integrating the technique of artificial potential fields. The proposed controller incorporates the dynamics of the three key subsystems typically found in a wheeled mobile robot: The mechanical structure, actuators, and power electronics. At the highest tier, input-output linearization is combined with artificial potential fields. The medium tier employs two controllers based on differential flatness theory, while the lowest tier incorporates sliding mode control and proportional-integral control. The effectiveness of the control strategy is experimentally validated using a differential drive-type wheeled mobile robot prototype, leveraging the TDK-Lambda G100-17 as a renewable energy emulator, along with the DS1104 board and Matlab-Simulink software. Experiments were conducted under two scenarios: a) the emulation of a commercial photovoltaic panel to simulate realistic operating conditions and b) the application of time-varying input voltages to replicate dynamic power source variations. The experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed controller against sudden changes in system parameters, confirming its reliability and effectiveness.
