Designing Stable Finite State Machine Behaviors Using Phase Plane Analysis and Variable Structure Control

  • Authors:

  • John T. Feddema;Rush D. Robinett;Brian J. Driessen

  • Affiliations:

  • Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, MS 1003, Albuquerque, NM 87185, U.S.A./ e-mail: jtfedde@sandia.gov;Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, MS 1003, Albuquerque, NM 87185, U.S.A;Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, MS 1003, Albuquerque, NM 87185, U.S.A

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

This paper discusses how phase plane analysis can be used to describe the overall behavior of single and multiple autonomous robotic vehicles with finite state machine rules. The importance of this result is that we can begin to design provably stable group behaviors from a set of simple control laws and appropriate switching points with decentralized variable structure control. The ability to prove stable group behavior is especially important for applications such as locating military targets or land mines. In this paper, we demonstrate how phase plane analysis has been used to explain the behavior of a 16 cm3 autonomous line-tracking robot with four finite states. After which, the analysis is extended to include the design of a decentralized variable structure controller that guides multiple vehicles to a goal while avoiding each other.