World Applied Sciences Journal 11 (3): 321-326, 2010 ISSN 1818-4952 IDOSI Publications, 2010

Fuzzy Logic Tracking Control for a Three Wheel Circular Robot in Unknown Environment
1

H. Eskandar, 2Pouya Salehi and 1M.H. Sabour

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Semnan, Iran 2 Assistant Professor, University of Tehran, Iran

Abstract: The mobile robots and automatic controlling machines are being used for different purposes such as materials transportation, delivering services in nuclear or military environment and so on. Recently, there have been lots of studies on this kind of robots. In this article, fuzzy logic as an intelligent method for controlling these robots in an unknown environment is suggested. In order to find the endpoint and avoid obstacles, the fuzzy controller is used. To prove the capabilities of the suggested fuzzy system, several movement of robot have been studied. The results show that the suggested fuzzy system has much better performance and more stability. Key words: Mobile robot % Unknown environment % Avoiding the obstacles % Fuzzy logic % Intelligent method INTRODUCTION The use of robotics and mobile automation systems is increasing every year. Navigation and obstacle avoidance are very important issues for the successful use of an autonomous mobile robot. In an unknown environment, the usage of the general methods is impossible and it costs a lot because the total map of the environment is needed. Therefore inevitably we should use the local methods, like; fuzzy systems or the neural networks. Recently, the new methods such as adaptive controllers [1], robust controllers [2], fuzzy controllers [3- 6] and evolutionary controllers [7- 9] are used to lead the robot in the environment. This paper presents the theoretical development of complete navigation problem of an autonomous mobile robot. The situation for which the vehicle tries to reach the endpoint is treated using a fuzzy logic controller. In this controller there has been used a fuzzy inference engine and a set of linguistic IF- THEN rules that encode the behavior of the mobile robot. The main problem of such controllers is how to create an effective formulation for the rules. These rules are usually generated using Heuristic Thinking based on the personal experiences [10]. The suggested method enables the robot to move perfectly from the start point to the end point, without confliction with any of the existing obstacles. In this method, for such a purpose, there has been used a kinematic robot model. The reason of not using the dynamic model is the complicity and time-consuming. For proving the ability of this method, the mobile robot is tested in different unknown environments. The results demonstrate the proper operation and the acceptable stability of fuzzy logic. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents kinematic model of mobile robot. In section 3, fuzzy logic controller has been presented. Next in section 4, evolutionary fuzzy system is discussed. At the end, the conclusion is included in the section 5. Kinematic Model of Mobile Robot: In this section, a kinematic description of a mobile robot is given. The mentioned mobile robot is a three wheel circular robot and is shown in Figure (1). It is assumed that the robot does not have any slip on the surface. In other words, the robot wheels are completely in touch with the ground. The r point is located in the middle of the axis between the two wheels. 2 is the angle between the line perpendicular to the wheels axis and the X axis. The angular velocity of the right and left wheels are shown as TR TL, respectively. Here the d is the space between the two wheels and rw is the radius of the robot wheels (Figure (1)). The linear velocity of the mobile robot (V(t)) and the angular velocity (T(t)), can be determined from the equations below [6].

Corresponding Author: Pouya Salehi, Unit 2, No 33, East 32 St (Shahid Gheysari St), South Allameh Tabatabayi Ave, Saadat Abad, Tehran, Iran, Tel: +98-912-3836788, E-mail: pouya.salehi@gmail.com.

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Fig. 1: Schematic representation of mobile robot.

V (t ) = rw ( L (t ) + R (t ) ) 2 r (t ) = w ( L (t ) R (t ) ) 2

Fig. 2: Inputs and outputs of the robot in a fuzzy system. towards the endpoint (goal), otherwise the robot will react to the obstacles and its relative position from the goal, based on the information gained from the sensor located in the center robot. While moving towards the goal (with the obstacle avoidance strategy), the robot changes its angular velocity and linear velocity. The fuzzy controller used for leading the robot, has 4 inputs and 2 outputs as follows (Figure (2)). Inputs: The four numerical inputs are fuzzified by the membership functions as shown in figures (3), (4), (5) and (6) respectively. These membership functions are defined based on the expert knowledge as follows: L: The distance between the robot and the goal (m), D: the distance between the robot and the closest obstacle, 21: the angle of the center of the robot and the obstacle (deg), 22: the angle between the center of the robot and the goal(deg). Three membership functions considered as the first inputs of the fuzzy system (L), (Figure (3)): C C C Close (S) Medium (M) Far (LA)

(1) (2)

The position of the robot in the unknown environment in any moment, is defined in the reference coordinates; [X, Y, 2]. Considering the equations (1) and (2), the kinematic model of such a robot, is defined with the below equations:
X = V cos Y = V sin = w

(3)

Considering, tv, tw and t, as time for the linear movement, the angular movement and the sampling moment and also implying the first Euler approximation to the equation (3), the kinematic model will be as follows:
X new = (V cos ) tv + X old t v = 0 / 2 Ynew = (V sin ) tv + Yold , t w = 0 / 8 new = ( .t w ) + old

(4)

It should be mentioned that the robot movement is divided into two: 1. turning situ and positioning in a new direction, 2. moving in a direct path in the new direction till reaching the new point. Fuzzy Logic Controller: The controller of the mobile robot is generally divided into two categories; finding the goal and avoiding obstacles. In the absence of the obstacle, robot moves 322

Four membership functions considered as the second inputs of the fuzzy system (D), (Figure (4)): C C C C Very near (VN) Near (N) Medium (M) Far (F)

World Appl. Sci. J., 11 (3): 321-326, 2010

Fig. 3: The fuzzy range demonstration of the first input of the fuzzy system.

Fig. 6: The fuzzy range demonstration of forth input of the fuzzy system.

Fig. 4: The fuzzy range demonstration of the 2nd input of the fuzzy system.

Fig. 7: The fuzzy range demonstration of the first output of the fuzzy system

Fig. 5: The fuzzy range demonstration of the 3rd input of the fuzzy system. Eight membership functions are defined for the 3rd and the forth inputs of the fuzzy controller (21 and 22): C C C C C Near positive zero angle (PZ) Little positive zero angle (PS) Medium positive angle (PM) Big positive angle (PB) and likewise for the negative (N) linguistic values 323

Fig. 8: The fuzzy range demonstration of the 2nd output of the fuzzy system These membership functions are in the range of -180 to 180 degrees, figures (5) and (6). Outputs: The two numerical outputs are fuzzified by the membership functions as shown in Figures (7) and (8) respectively. These membership functions are defined based on the expert knowledge as follows:

World Appl. Sci. J., 11 (3): 321-326, 2010

V: the linear velocity of the robot ( m ), T: the angular s velocity of the robot ( rad ), . s The following membership functions considered as the outputs: Four membership functions as the first output of the fuzzy control system (V): C C C C Very low velocity (VL) Low velocity (L) Medium velocity (M) High velocity (H)

The fuzzy rules are an if- then statement that consist of a premise (antecedent) and consequent. In this article, we have divided these rules into four groups (Table (1-4)), based on the distance between the robot and the obstacle. According to the Table (1), if the distance between the robot and the obstacle is far, reaching the goal point is the first priority; otherwise the first aim would be increasing the distance between the robot and the obstacle (Table (2-4)). Fuzzy Inference Mechanism: Fuzzy inference is the process of formulating the mapping from a given input to an output using fuzzy logic. The mapping then provides a basis from which decisions can be made, or patterns discerned. The process of fuzzy inference involves all of the pieces that are described in the previous sections: Membership Functions and If-Then Rules. The used inference fuzzy mechanism is the MAMDANI (Min-Max inferences). Defuzzification: There are many ways for performing defuzzification. The strategy adopted here is the center of gravity (centroid) method. Simulation and Evolutionary Fuzzy System: The virtual simulated environment is an environment with the 6m 6m dimensions. The mentioned robot, as described before, has three wheels and is circular, with a diameter of 0.4 meter, which is similar to a laboratory robot.

Eight membership functions are defined for the second output of the fuzzy controller (T), (Figure (8)): C C C C Angular velocity near zero, in the positive direction (PZ) Low angular velocity in the positive direction (PS) Medium angular velocity in the positive direction (PM) Likewise for the negative (N) linguistic values

The Fuzzy Rules: The main idea in the fuzzy algorithm is the usage of the lingual rules when facing different conditions produced by controlling a process. In this article, the lingual rules are inspired by the human behavior.

Table 1: D is far 22 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NB NM NS NZ PZ PS PM PB L ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------S NB L NM L NS L NZ L PZ L PS L PM L PB L M NB M NM M NS M NZ M PZ M PS M PM M PB M LA NB H NM H NS H NZ H PZ H PS H PM H PB H T v Table 2: D is very near 21 NB ---------------PZ L T v Table 3: D is near 21 NB ---------------PZ L T v Table 4: D is medium 21 NB ---------------PZ M T v

NM ---------------PS L

NS ---------------PM L

NZ ---------------PB VL

PZ ---------------NB VL

PS ---------------NM L

PM ---------------NS L

PB -------------NZ L

NM ---------------PS L

NS ---------------PM L

NZ ---------------PB L

PZ ---------------NB L

PS ---------------NM L

PM ---------------NS L

PB ---------------NZ L

NM ---------------PS M

NS ---------------PM M

NZ ---------------PB M

PZ ---------------NB M

PS ---------------NM M

PM ---------------NS M

PB ---------------NZ M

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Fig. 9: The way the robot moves in the unknown environments The reason we chose the robot to be circular, is that it can turn in limited spaces. The simulation is done by the Matlab software in a Pentium 4 PC, with a 2.0 GHZ CPU and a 2GB Ram. For testing the operation of the suggested method, different paths have been tested and verified. According to the Figure (9), from the movement of the robot, it is clear that the fuzzy rules, while being simple, have a great operation and a stable movement. It should be mentioned that in the figures below, the black color indicates the obstacles, the green color indicates the obstacles in the path of the robot, which are seen by the robot and the yellow, light blue and purple 325 color on the blue circle, indicate the left, right and the front wheels of the robot, as well. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we present a fuzzy controller which stabilizes the operation of the mobile robots. Four inputs and two outputs were used to create IF-THEN fuzzy rules. The presented fuzzy controller updates the output parameters of fuzzy logic system. According to the usage of the kinematic model of the robot, for improving the fuzzy rules, the fuzzy controller is able to control the robot in the unknown

World Appl. Sci. J., 11 (3): 321-326, 2010

environments, better. It should be mentioned that this controller has a very good operation and a stable movement. Also these rules have more stable movement and better operation. REFERENCES 1. Dixon, W.E., M.S. Dequeioz and D.M. Dawson, 2002. Adaptive tracking and regulation of a wheeled mobile robot with controller/update law modularity. International conference on robotics and automation, IEEE, pp: 2620- 2625. Dixon, W.E. and D. Walker, 2005. Fault detection for wheeled mobile robot with parametric uncertainty. International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, pp: 1245-1250. Yoshizo, W.K., 1996. Path tracking control of mobile robots using a quadratic curve. Conference on intelligent vehicles symposium, IEEE, pp: 58-63. Pawlowski, S., P. Dutkiewicz, K. Kozlowski and W. Wrobleski, 0000. Fuzzy Logic Implementation in Mobile Robot Control. Second Work Shop on Robot Motion and Control. Pradhan, S.K., D.R. Parhi and A.K. Panda, 2009. Fuzzy logic techniques for navigation of several mobile robots. Appl. Soft Computing, 9(2): 477-487.

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