Sampled-Data Control Approach for Unmanned Ground Vehicles Using RTK Sensors

In this paper, we study simulation and experimental verification of a sampled data control approach for an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). Our research vehicle is a differential wheeled robot with an RTK sensor, lidar and camera, however in this work only the RTK sensor is used. The rationale for adopting a sampled-data control approach is as follows: RTK sensor output is usually a 1 Hz signal, but the position and orientation control loop of the UGV usually runs at much higher frequencies. We study the trajectory following problem and propose a sampled-data control approach to minimize the tracking error. Both simulation and experimental results that are presented in this work demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.