ARTICLE IN PRESS

Neurocomputing 71 (2008) 1561–1565

www.elsevier.com/locate/neucom

Adaptive control of nonlinear PID-based analog neural

networks for a nonholonomic mobile robot
Jun Ye
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Shaoxing College of Arts and Sciences, Shaoxing, Zhejiang 312000, PR China
Received 26 December 2006; received in revised form 22 March 2007; accepted 24 April 2007
Communicated by R. Tadeusiewicz
Available online 7 June 2007

Abstract

An adaptive controller of nonlinear PID-based analog neural networks is developed for the velocity- and orientation-tracking control
of a nonholonomic mobile robot. A superb mixture of a conventional PID controller and a neural network, which has powerful
capability of continuously online learning, adaptation and tackling nonlinearity, brings us the novel nonlinear PID-based analog neural
network controller. It is appropriate for a kind of plant with nonlinearity uncertainties and disturbances. Computer simulation for a
differentially driven nonholonomic mobile robot is carried out in the velocity- and orientation-tracking control of the nonholonomic
mobile robot. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm is demonstrated through the simulation experiment, which shows its
superior performance and disturbance rejection.
r 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Nonlinear PID; Analog neural network; Nonholonomic mobile robot; Adaptive control

1. Introduction researchers [4–9] considering the system disturbances and

The motion control of wheeled mobile robots (WMRs)
has drawn considerable attention over the past few years.
Most of these reports have focused on the steering or
trajectory generation problem at the kinematics level, i.e.,
considering the system velocities as control inputs and
ignoring the mechanical system dynamics [1]. However,
WMRs constitute a class of mechanical systems called a
nonholonomic mechanical system [2] characterized by the
kinematic constraints that are not integrable and cannot,
therefore, be eliminated from the model equations. The
nonholonomic behavior in robotic systems is particularly
interesting, because it implies that the mechanism can be
completely controlled with a reduced number of actuators.
From a real-time point of view, the nonholonomic
kinematic controller is to be integrated with the dynamics
of a mobile robot as the ‘perfect velocity tracking’
assumption may not hold good in practice [3]. Various
nonlinear control techniques have also been used by many
Tel.: +86 575 88327323.
E-mail address: yejnn@yahoo.com.cn
unknown dynamic parameters. Neural networks are
considered an effective tool for nonlinear controller design.
Neural networks offer exciting advantages such as adaptive
learning, fault tolerance and generalization. Fierro and
Lewis [3] developed an artificial neural network-based
controller by combining the feedback velocity control
technique and torque controller, using a multilayer
feedforward neural network. But the controller structure
and the neural network-learning algorithm are very
complicated and it is computationally expensive. In [2], a
simple neural network-based controller was proposed for
real-time fine control of mobile robots but it is still
complicated. Here, it motivates us to combine a neural
network with PID control. It is anticipated that the
combination will take advantage of the simplicity of PID
controllers and the powerful capability of learning,
adaptability and tackling nonlinearity of neural networks.
Therefore, the adaptive controller of a nonlinear PID-
based analog neural network (ANN) is developed for the
velocity- and orientation-tracking control of nonholo-
nomic mobile robots in this paper. The adaptive controller
is robust to unknown disturbances including unstructured,

0925-2312/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2007.04.014
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1562 J. Ye / Neurocomputing 71 (2008) 1561–1565

unmodelled dynamics, and also it is simple and applied can be described as

easily. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the 2 3
proposed control algorithm and its superior performance 1 1
   
m 0 6r r 7 0 0
and disturbance rejection. ; B̄ ¼ 6 7
M̄ ¼
0 I 4R R 5; C̄m ¼
0 0
. (4)

r r
2. Model of a nonholonomic mobile robot
The matrix M(q)AR3  3 is a symmetric positive definite
A two-wheeled mobile robot moving on a horizontal inertia matrix; C m ðq; q_ ÞAR3  3 is the centripetal and
plane is shown in Fig. 1. The mobile robot features two Coriolis matrix; sdAR3  1 denotes bounded unknown
differentially driven rear wheels and a passive self-adjusted disturbances, including unstructured, unmodelled dy-
supporting wheel (a castor front wheel), which carries the namics; B(q)AR3  2 is the input transformation matrix;
mechanical structure. The two driving wheels are indepen- s ¼ [tr,tl]T is the input vector in which tr and tl represent
dently driven two actuators (e.g. DC motors) for motion the right and left wheel torques, respectively; m is the mass
and orientation. Two wheels have the same radius denoted of the mobile robot; I is the moment of inertia of the
by r and two driving wheels are separated by 2R. It is mobile robot about the vertical axis through C (center of
assumed that the mobile robot under study is made up of a mass). In Eq. (3), the matrix V ¼ [v,o]T includes the
rigid frame equipped with non-deformable wheels. The translational and rotational velocities (v and o) of the
center of mass of the mobile robot is located at point C. mobile robot and S(q) is given by
The pose of the robot in the global coordinate frame {O, X,
2 3
Y} is completely specified by the vector P ¼ [x,y,y]T, where cos y 0
x and y are the coordinates of point C in the global 6 7
SðqÞ ¼ 4 sin y 0 5. (5)
coordinate frame and y is the robotic orientation measured
0 1
from X-axis.
Three generalized coordinates can describe the config-
uration of the robot, Remark 1. In this dynamic model of the mobile robot, the
passive self-adjusted supporting wheel influence is not
q ¼ ½x; y; yT . (1) taken into consideration, as it is a free wheel. This
T
At any given time, q ¼ [x,y,y] describes the robot’s significantly reduces the complexity of the model for the
configuration (pose) at that time. feedback controller design. However, the free wheel may be
The dynamic model for the above wheeled-mobile robot a source of substantial distortion, particularly in the
is given by Ref. [2]. changing case of its movement direction. This effect is
reduced if we consider the small velocity of the robot.
M̄V_ þ C̄m V þ s̄d ¼ B̄t, (2)
Remark 2. Eq. (2) describes the behavior of the non-
holonomic system in a new set of local coordinates, i.e. S(q)
q_ ¼ SðqÞVðtÞ, (3) is a Jacobian matrix that transforms velocities V in mobile
base coordinates to velocities in Cartesian coordinates q_ .
where M̄ ¼ ST MS, C̄m ¼ ST ðMS_ þ Cm SÞ, s̄d ¼ ST sd ;
B̄ ¼ ST B. The matrices in Eq. (2) for the mobile robot 3. Adaptive control of a nonholonomic mobile robot

The strategy of PID control has been one of most

sophisticated and most frequently used methods in
Y v industry. This is because the PID controller has a simple
2r form and strong robustness in broad operating condition.
However, the requirement of control precision becomes
higher and higher in accordance with the complexity of

plants. The conventional PID controller with fixed para-
meters may usually deteriorate the control performance.
C
Various types of modified PID controllers have been
developed in the existing literature. However, if severe
2R
nonlinearity is involved in the controlled process, a
nonlinear control scheme will be more useful, particularly
in the case of high nonlinearity of mobile robots. Nowa-
days, neural networks have been proved to be a promising
O X
approach to solve complex nonlinear control problems and
there are two kinds of neural networks for control
Fig. 1. Non-holonomic mobile robot configuration. applications, i.e., digital and analog neural networks.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Ye / Neurocomputing 71 (2008) 1561–1565 1563

Many digital neural networks, which are discrete learning As to the left-and right-wheel driven system, the direct
algorithms, have been presented owing to the fact that they controllers of nonlinear PID-based ANNs for the mobile
offer several advantages such as predictable accuracy, high robot are proposed as
noise-immunity, ease of multiplexing communication and
t r ¼ u1 þ u2 , (6)
computation, availability of well-established tools for
digital design and ease of interfacing with other digital t l ¼ u1  u2 , (7)
systems. On the other hand, analog neural networks, which
are continuously learning algorithms, have many advan- where u1 and u2 are the outputs of the ANN1 and the
tages such as high speed, small size, low cost, low power ANN2, respectively. The network structure with a three-
and straightforward interfacing with the outside word that layer neuron is shown in Fig. 3. Here, kpj, kij, kdj, (j ¼ 1,2)
is analog by nature, when analog neural circuits are made are the proportional, integral and derivative gains,
of electronic elements or chips. Control systems have to respectively; epj, eij and edj that are three inputs of the
respond in real time and, therefore, demand fast computa- neural network are the system errors between the desired
tion. Currently, many promising developments in robotics output and motion output of the mobile robot, integral of
and automation are impractical because of the large size, the system error, and difference of the system error,
cost and power consumption of the required control respectively. A controller output uj can be obtained from
systems. Hence, it motivates us to combine an analog the following equation:
neural network with PID control. The combination uj ¼ f ðxÞ; j ¼ 1; 2, (8)
proposed here will take advantage of the simplicity of
PID control and the analog neural network’s powerful where x is the input of sigmoid function f(  ) that has a
capability of continuous online learning, adaptability and nonlinear relationship as presented in the following
tackling nonlinearity. However, there is a linear PID function
controller tuned using ANN in literature, but it may 2ð1  eax Þ
usually deteriorate the control performance [8] if severe f ðxÞ ¼ , (9)
að1 þ eax Þ
nonlinearity is involved in the controlled process. There-
fore, the nonlinear PID controller tuned using ANN is where a is a parameter, which determines the shape of
proposed in this paper, and it can improve the control sigmoid function. The input signal of the sigmoid function
performance of the nonlinear systems. in the output layer becomes
The structure of the newly proposed control algorithm of
nonlinear PID-based analog neural networks is shown in xðtÞ ¼ kpj ðtÞepj ðtÞ þ kij ðtÞeij ðtÞ þ kdj ðtÞedj ðtÞ; j ¼ 1; 2,
Fig. 2. This control algorithm has the characteristics such (10)
as simple structure, little computation time, and contin-
uous auto-tuning method of the neural network controller. where
Two direct controllers of the PID-based analog neural Z t
networks are composed of the orientation and velocity dep1 ðtÞ
ep1 ðtÞ ¼ vd ðtÞ  vðtÞ; ei1 ðtÞ ¼ ep1 ðtÞdt; ed1 ðtÞ ¼ ,
control of the mobile robot. Robot motion can be 0 dt
controlled by its linear velocity v and orientation angle y.
Here, the control goal is to design two ANN controllers Z t
dep2 ðtÞ
that force the tracking error e ¼ [ep1, ep2]T to zero, where ep2 ðtÞ ¼ yd ðtÞ  yðtÞ; ei2 ðtÞ ¼ ep2 ðtÞdt; ed2 ðtÞ ¼ .
ep1 ¼ vdv, ep2 ¼ ydy, and vd and yd are the desired 0 dt
translational (linear) velocity and the desired orientation
The Neural networks are trained by the conventional
angle, respectively.
back propagation algorithm to minimize the system error
between the output of the mobile robot and desired output
defined by the following equation:
- ep1
1
vd
ed1
E j ðtÞ ¼ ðepj ðtÞÞ2 ; j ¼ 1; 2: (11)
s
PID- u1
1 2
Based
ei1 T r
1 ANN1 Σ v
s 1 Mobile
T l Robot epj(t)
ep2 1 Σ  kpj(t)
d
ed2 PID- u2
- s Based
-1 kdj(t)
edj(t) Σ f(x) uj(t)
ei2 ANN2
1
s
eij(t) kij(t)

Fig. 2. Block diagram of the mobile robot control system Fig. 3. Block diagram of a nonlinear PID-based neural network
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1564 J. Ye / Neurocomputing 71 (2008) 1561–1565

From the discrete algorithm using the steepest descent Eq. (12) is expressed as follows:
method [8], the following equations can be derived [10]:
8
> Rt 4eax
8 >
> kpj ðtÞ ¼ kpj ð0Þ þ Zpj 0 epj ðtÞepj ðtÞ dt;
> R t qE j ðtÞ >
> ð1 þ eax Þ2
>
> kpj ðtÞ ¼ kpj ð0Þ  Zpj 0 dt; >
>
>
> qkpj >
< Rt
>
> 4eax
>
< R t qE j ðtÞ kij ðtÞ ¼ kij ð0Þ þ Zij 0 epj ðtÞeij ðtÞ dt; j ¼ 1; 2.
kij ðtÞ ¼ kij ð0Þ  Zij 0 dt; j ¼ 1; 2; >
> ð1 þ eax Þ2
qkij (12) >
>
>
> >
> Rt 4eax
>
> >
> k ðtÞ ¼ k ð0Þ þ Z e ðtÞe ðtÞ dt:
>
> R t @E j ðtÞ : dj dj dj 0 pj dj
ð1 þ eax Þ2
>
: kdj ðtÞ ¼ kdj ð0Þ  Zdj 0 @kdj dt;
>
(15)

where Zpj, Zij and Zdj (j ¼ 1,2) are learning rates determining The effectiveness of the proposed PID-based ANN control
the convergence speed. From Eq. (11), using the chain rule, will be demonstrated through simulations of the motion
the following equations are derived: control of the mobile robot.
8
> @E 1 ðtÞ @E 1 ðtÞ @v @u1 ðtÞ@xðtÞ @v
>
> ¼ ¼ ep1 ðtÞ f 0 xðtÞep1 ðtÞ; 4. Simulation results
>
> @k @v @u @x @k @u
>
> p1 1 p1 1
>
> @E 1 ðtÞ @E 1 ðtÞ @v @u1 ðtÞ@xðtÞ @v
>
> The proposed neural network control is verified with
>
> ¼ ¼ ep1 ðtÞ f 0 xðtÞei1 ðtÞ;
> @ki1
> @v @u 1 @x @k i1 @u 1 computer simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK. Here,
>
>
> qE 1 ðtÞ qE 1 ðtÞ qv qu1 ðtÞqxðtÞ
> qv the simulation is carried out by tracking a desired velocity
>
> 0
< qk ¼ qv qu qx qk ¼ ep1 ðtÞqu f xðtÞed1 ðtÞ; and orientation angle with a circular motion trajectory in
d1 1 d1 1
> qE 2 ðtÞ qE 2 ðtÞ qy qu2 ðtÞqxðtÞ qy the tracking control of the nonholonomic mobile robot.
>
> ¼ ¼ ep2 ðtÞ f 0 xðtÞep2 ðtÞ;
>
> qk qy qu qx qk qu The neural controller designed by this method does not
>
> p2 2 p2 2
>
> need any training procedure in advance, but it uses only the
>
> qE 2 ðtÞ qE 2 ðtÞ qy qu 2 ðtÞ qxðtÞ qy
>
>
> ¼ ¼ ep2 ðtÞ f 0 xðtÞei2 ðtÞ; input and output of the plant for the adaptation of control
>
> qk i2 qy qu 2 qx qk i2 qu2 parameters and can tune the parameters by means of a
>
>
>
> qE 2 ðtÞ qE 2 ðtÞ qy qu 2 ðtÞ qxðtÞ qy 0 continuously online learning process. The purpose of the
>
: qk ¼ qy qu qx qk ¼ ep2 ðtÞqu f xðtÞed2 ðtÞ:
d2 2 d2 2 simulation is to show the effectiveness of the proposed
(13) neural control algorithm.
For the simulation purpose, the desired velocity and the
desired orientation angle are taken as vd(t) ¼ 0.25 m/s and
And the following expression can be derived from Eq. (9):
yd(t) ¼ p/2+0.25 t rad (the motion trajectory on a circle of
radius 1 m), respectively. The mobile robot, however, starts
eax
f 0 ðxÞ ¼ 4 . (14) from the initial velocity v(0) ¼ 0 and the initial position
ð1 þ eax Þ2 q(0) ¼ [1.2,0,p/2]T for the initial conditions. The para-
meters of two ANN controllers are chosen as, Zp1 ¼ 600,
As done by Thanh and Ahn [8], for conveniencewe assume Zi1 ¼ 500 and Zd1 ¼ 1.5; Zp2 ¼ 800, Zi2 ¼ 5 and Zd2 ¼ 800;
qv=qu1 ¼ 1, qy=qu1 ¼ 1, qv=qu2 ¼ 1 and qy=qu2 ¼ 1. Then and a ¼ 1. However, the parameter values of the mobile

Fig. 4. Tracking performance of the motion control. (a) Tracking velocity. (b) Tracking angle. (c) Motion trajectory of the mobile robot.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Ye / Neurocomputing 71 (2008) 1561–1565
robot are taken as m ¼ 9 kg; I ¼ 5 kgm2; 2R ¼ 0.306 m;
r ¼ 0.052 m. These values are selected based on approx-
imate measurements or calculations made from an experi-
mental mobile robot system. To demonstrate the online
learning ability and robustness of the proposed neural
controllers, a disturbance term t̄d ¼ ½0:1 sin y; 0:1 sin yT ;
is added to the mobile robot system as unmodelled and
external disturbances.
Simulation results for the case are shown in Fig. 4. For
tA[0,30]. Fig. 4(a,b) shows that the mobile robot linear
velocity and orientational angle converge to the correspond-
ing desired velocity and orientational angle, respectively. Fig.
4(c) shows the circular motion trajectory of the mobile robot
in the motion control. As can be seen from these figures, the
mobile robot immediately heads towards the desired velocity
and orientational angle that is moving on the circle. It then
reaches them quickly and continues to track them. In the
meantime, the tracking control is reasonably accurate owing
to the quick online learning and adaptive capability of the
ANNs. The simulation results demonstrate that the adaptive
control of the nonlinear PID-based ANN for the mobile
robot is capable of better tracking performance in real time
and robustness to disturbances.
5. Conclusion
In this paper an adaptive controller of a nonlinear PID-
based analog neural network is proposed for solving the
motion control problem of a nonholonomic mobile robot.
The proposed direct control method for the mobile robot is
capable of real-time control and has a better tracking
performance. Simulation results demonstrate the effective-
ness of the proposed control algorithm, better dynamic
property, and strong robustness, and it was suitable for the
control of nonholonomic mobile robots. There are several
features worth pointing out.
 A simple nonlinear PID-based analog neural network
for tracking control of a wheeled mobile robot has been
proposed.
 Actually, the proposed neural controller does not
require the dynamics model of mobile robots, which is
needed only in the simulation for this paper.
 The proposed neural controller is robust to disturbances
including unstructured, unmodelled dynamics.
 The analog neural network has real-time control
capability due to quick online learning capability with
a continuous algorithm, and does not need any training
procedure in advance, but it uses only the input and
output of the plant for the adaptation of the control
parameter, and can tune the parameters continuously.
1565
Our next research work will be a circuit implementation
of the analog neural network that is made of electronic
elements or chips, and its experimental investigation for
real-time tracking performance of a mobile robot.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by Natural Science Founda-
tion of Zhejiang Province, PR China under Grant no.
M603070.
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Jun Ye graduated and received his M.S. degree in
Automation and Robotics from the Technical
University of Koszalin, Koszalin, Poland in 1997.
He is currently, a Professor in the Department of
Mechatronics Engineering at Shaoxing College of
Arts and Sciences, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province,
P. R. China. His research interests include
intelligence control of robots, neural network,
nonlinear control, and robotic mechanism design.