Robust Backstepping Control for Tracked Vehicles Under the Influence of Slipping and Skidding

In many situations, vehicles are required to operate over a rough terrain to undertake certain tasks. Therefore, such vehicles are designed with tracks to deal with the irregular terrain. The performance of tracked vehicles is evident to be better over rough terrains than those with wheels. However, it is required to maneuver and steer such tracked vehicles in an efficient manner to follow a certain path. In fact, the most challenging factor in steering a tracked vehicle over a rough terrain is the presence of slipping and skidding and their consequences. In this paper, a nonlinear control scheme is proposed to overcome the presence of slipping and skidding while maneuvering tracked vehicles over uneven terrains. A robust feature is utilized in the proposed controller design to improve the tracking performance under slipping and skidding. Preliminary simulation results are introduced to verify the proposed controller and demonstrate the feasibility of the design.