Safe Sliding Mode Control Design with Its Application to Mobile Robot Path Tracking

In this paper, we propose a safe sliding mode control (SSMC) algorithm combining sliding mode control (SMC) with control barrier function (CBF) through quadratic program (QP) criterion to simultaneously guarantee safety and tracking performance of a class of nonlinear uncertain systems. The SMC part in the proposed controller is used to handle disturbance and realize satisfying tracking performance while CBF part controller is adopted to guarantee system safety. The two controllers are manipulated by QP criterion. The proposed controller is applied on path tracking of follower mobile robot. As the leader robot moves along a given trajectory, the followers can track the leader and maintain a certain safety range.