Lagrange formalism is applied to derive a dynamic model, and design a nonlinear controller for two nonholonomic, differentially steered, wheeled mobile robots compliantly linked to a common payload. The resulting multivariable system model is of a large order and can be block decoupled by selective state feedback into five independent subsystems, two of which effectively represent the deviation dynamics of the individual robots from a prescribed path; two others represent their forward motion dynamics; while the fifth describes the payload dynamics. Controllers for each of the robot subsystems, including self-tuning adaptive controllers for the nonlinear deviation dynamics subsystems, are designed by the pole-placement technique. System performance is then evaluated via simulation for the case where each robot is undergoing curvilinear motion.
