Trajectory Tracking Control of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle Based on Fractional Order Terminal Sliding Mode Controller

In this chapter, fractional order terminal sliding mode control (FOTSMC) method, which is a hybrid control approach, is used to improve the trajectory tracking control performance of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). First, a kinematic controller design has been carried out to estimate the linear and angular velocities that will stabilize the vehicle asymptotically. Then, FOTSMC, which is a hybrid control method that combines the advantages of fractional control and terminal sliding mode control methods, is proposed to perform vehicle reference velocities tracking. In addition, terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) and sliding mode control (SMC) methods are used for trajectory tracking control of the same vehicle to demonstrate the performance of the proposed controller. Simulation results show that the proposed controller performs trajectory tracking with smaller error and lower amplitude chattering compared to TSMC and SMC.