Fixed‐Time Disturbance Attenuation Formation Control for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots With Uncertain Sliding

ABSTRACT In this article, a fixed‐time formation control strategy that combines curvature tracking method is proposed for multiple nonholonomic mobile robots with uncertain sliding. Considering the skidding and slipping, a curvature tracking motion law is derived by sorting out the nonholonomic constraint equations, upon which the formation control task is simplified to a curvature tracking task. To further improve disturbance attenuation performance, two nonlinear fixed‐time disturbance observers are designed, respectively, to estimate all pertinent disturbances in the kinematics and dynamics models of the investigated system. Then, an adaptive fixed‐time distributed sliding mode control law based on the dynamic tracking method is developed to achieve curvature tracking. Numerical simulations are conducted under both constant curvature and non‐constant curvature conditions to validate the presented formation control strategy. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy enables all followers to quickly follow the desired trajectory curves and achieve accurate formation control. Obstacle constraints are taken into account and effective obstacle avoidance is realized. Comparative studies are carried out, and the advantages of the proposed method are shown. The findings provide valuable insights into controller design and practical applications for nonholonomic mobile robots with uncertain sliding.