{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]],"date-time":"2026-04-09T11:03:33Z","timestamp":1775732613033,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,16]],"date-time":"2024-12-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1734307200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Skid-steer mobile robots (SSMRs) are ubiquitous in indoor and outdoor applications. Their accurate trajectory tracking control is quite challenging due to the uncertainties arising from the complex behavior of frictional force, external disturbances, and fluctuations in the instantaneous center of rotation (ICR) during turning maneuvers. These uncertainties directly disturb velocities, hindering the robot from tracking the velocity command. This paper proposes a nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) based on backstepping for a four-wheel SSMR to cope with the aforementioned challenges. The strategy seeks to mitigate the impacts of external disturbances and model uncertainties by developing an adaptive law to estimate the integrated lumped outcome. The finite time stability of the closed-loop system is proven using Lyapunov\u2019s theory. The designed NTSMC input is continuous and avoids noticeable chattering. It was noted in the simulation analysis that the proposed control strategy is strongly robust against disturbance and modeling uncertainties, demonstrating effective trajectory tracking performance in the presence of disturbance and modeling uncertainties.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics13120180","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,16]],"date-time":"2024-12-16T09:17:58Z","timestamp":1734340678000},"page":"180","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Backstepping-Based Nonsingular Terminal Sliding Mode Control for Finite-Time Trajectory Tracking of a Skid-Steer Mobile Robot"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5951-9523","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mulugeta Debebe","family":"Teji","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Akaki Kality P.O. Box 16417, Ethiopia"},{"name":"Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John\u2019s, NL A1B 3X5, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4485-1902","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ting","family":"Zou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John\u2019s, NL A1B 3X5, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dinku Seyoum","family":"Zeleke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Akaki Kality P.O. Box 16417, Ethiopia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Emmi, L., Fern\u00e1ndez, R., and Gonzalez-de Santos, P. (2023). An efficient guiding manager for ground mobile robots in agriculture. Robotics, 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics13010006"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jun, J.Y., Hua, M.D., and Benamar, F. (2014, January 15\u201317). A trajectory tracking control design for a skid-steering mobile robot by adapting its desired instantaneous center of rotation. Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Los Angeles, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CDC.2014.7040100"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ostafew, C.J., Schoellig, A.P., and Barfoot, T.D. (June, January 31). 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