This paper presents a new design of omnidirectional automatic guided vehicle based on a hub motor, and proposes a joint controller for path tracking. The proposed controller includes two parts: a fuzzy controller and a multi-step predictive optimal controller. Firstly, based on various steering conditions, the kinematics model of the whole vehicle and the pose (position, angle) model in the global coordinate system are introduced. Secondly, based on the modeling, the joint controller is designed. Lateral deviation and course deviation are used as the input variables of the control system, and the threshold value is switched according to the value of the input variable to realise the correction of the large range of posture deviation. Finally, the joint controller is implemented by using the industrial PC and the self-developed control system based on the Freescale minimum system. Path tracking experiments were made under the straight and circular paths to test the ability of the joint controller for reducing the pose deviation. The experimental results show that the designed guided vehicle has excellent ability to path tracking, which meets the design goals.
