A Controller Design Method Based on a Neural Network for an Outdoor Mobile Robot

A wheeled mobile mechanism with a passive and/or active linkage mechanism for travel in rough terrain is developed and evaluated. In our previous research, we developed a switching controller system for wheeled mobile robots in rough terrain. This system consists of two sub-systems: an environment recognition system using a self-organizing map and an adjusted control system using a neural network. In this paper, we propose a new controller design method based on a neural network. The proposed method involves three kinds of controllers: an elementary controller, adjusted controllers, and simplified controllers. In the experiments, our proposed method results in less oscillatory motion in rough terrain and performs better than a well tuned PID controller does.