Grey Wolf Optimizer-Based Approaches to Path Planning and Fuzzy Logic-based Tracking Control for Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper proposes two applications of Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) algorithms to a path planning (PaPl) problem and a Proportional-Integral (PI)-fuzzy controller tuning problem. Both optimization problems solved by GWO algorithms are explained in detail. An off-line GWO-based PaPl approach for Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robots (NWMRs) in static environments is proposed. Once the PaPl problem is solved resulting in the reference trajectory of the robots, the paper also suggests a GWO-based approach to tune cost-effective PI-fuzzy controllers in tracking control problem for NWMRs. The experimental results are demonstrated through simple multiagent settings conducted on the nRobotic platform developed at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania, and they prove both the effectiveness of the two GWO-based approaches and major performance improvement.