Multirate LQG controller applied to self-location and path-tracking in mobile robots

Presents an approach to solving the linear quadratic Gaussian problem for controlling MIMO multirate sampled-data systems. The problem is split into three parts: first a generalized discrete multirate model is computed, second the solution of the linear quadratic regulator problem is computed and then a multirate Kalman filter is obtained. The model is composed by a time invariant single rate part, involving the basic process dynamics and a periodic one determined by the external sampling strategy. This allows an easy analysis of the effects of the multirate sampling on the plant. The approach has been applied to solve problems of self-location and path tracking in mobile robots. As is common in many auto-guided vehicles the sensory system is very complex, so some kind of sensor data fusion has been implemented.