Dynamic switching controller for bidirectional trajectory tracking in PV powered mobile robots considering all their subsystems and irradiance variations
摘要
This paper addresses the challenge of bidirectional trajectory tracking in wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) powered by photovoltaic (PV) panels under variable irradiance. Unlike existing studies that simplify subsystem interactions, this work develops a hierarchical dynamic switching controller that integrates the WMR’s dynamic model with its actuators and power electronics. This hierarchical architecture explicitly accounts for the switching nature of the power converters to manage the energy flow from the PV source while ensuring precise motion control. A key contribution of this work is the achievement of bidirectional tracking through the management of bipolar motor voltages to drive wheel velocities in both directions; this addresses a problem not previously solved in the literature when the WMR dynamic model, the power electronics subsystem, and the PV source are considered as an integrated framework. The proposed dynamic switching controller is validated through realistic simulations in MATLAB/Simulink, using the Simscape library to model both the actuators and power electronics subsystems, as well as a commercial PV panel subjected to variable irradiance profiles and abrupt parametric variations in the electrical components. The results demonstrate that the controller effectively solves the bidirectional tracking task. Furthermore, a quantitative comparison is performed between the controller proposed in this paper and another reported in the literature. The obtained indicators show the superior performance and robustness of the proposed scheme. These indicators confirm the robustness and reliability of the dynamic switching controller, demonstrating its ability to maintain precise bidirectional trajectory tracking even under sudden irradiance fluctuations and simultaneous internal parameter variations.