ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the difference between controllability in the linear system theory and controllability of mobile robots, having in mind that a mobile robot is a nonlinear system. An autonomous system must be capable of performing a task without human assistance and without relying on an electronic guidance system. It must have sensors to identify environmental changes, and it must incorporate planning and navigation features to accomplish a task. The intelligent robotic vehicle system consists of a mobile platform, a manipulator arm, and a set of mission sensors. Although there has been a vast amount of research effort on modeling open and closed kinematic chains, study of systems that include both mobile platforms and manipulators mounted on top of them is very limited. A variety of control systems with mobile robots are in use. Absolute coordinates are possible to get through GPS, which uses information on the geographic position of the robot obtained from a satellite by a radio link.
