In this paper, we study the decentralized coverage control problem for an environment using a group of autonomous mobile robots with nonholonomic kinematic and dynamic constraints. In comparison with standard coverage control procedures, we develop a combined controller for Voronoi-based coverage approach in which kinematic and dynamic constraints of the actual mobile sensing robots are incorporated into the controller design. Furthermore, a collision avoidance component is added in the kinematic controller in order to guarantee a collision free coverage of the area. The convergence of the network to the optimal sensing configuration is proven with a Lyapunov-type analysis. Numerical simulations are provided approving the effectiveness of the proposed method through several experimental scenarios.

This paper addresses a high-order sliding mode control strategy for output tracking of nonholonomic mobile robots. First, we introduce the dynamic model of robots, driving motors and nonslipping kinematics constraint conditions. Second, we decompose the system into linear and nonlinear components via diffeomorphism and nonlinear input transformation. Also we consider parameter variations of robots and deduce the uncertain model of robots. Third, we design a high order sliding mode controller for output tracking of known and uncertain systems, respectively. Finally, we perform numerical simulations, demonstrating that the proposed high-order sliding mode control not only reduces the chattering problem of sliding mode systems, but also has certain robustness properties with respect to uncertainties of robots.