By using the hierarchical controller approach, a new solution for the control problem related to trajectory tracking in a differential drive wheeled mobile robot (DDWMR) is presented in this paper. For this aim, the dynamics of the three subsystems composing a DDWMR, i.e., the mechanical structure (differential drive type), the actuators (DC motors), and the power stage (DC/DC Buck power converters), are taken into account. The proposed hierarchical switched controller has three levels: the high level corresponds to a kinematic control for the mechanical structure; the medium level includes two controls based on differential flatness for the actuators; and the low level is linked to two cascade switched controls based on sliding modes and PI control for the power stage. The hierarchical switched controller was experimentally implemented on a DDWMR prototype via MATLAB-Simulink along with a DS1104 board. With the intention of assessing the performance of the switched controller, experimental results associated with a hierarchical average controller recently reported in literature are also presented here. The experimental results show the robustness of both controllers when parametric uncertainties are applied. However, the performance achieved with the switched controller introduced in the present paper is better than, or at least similar to, performance achieved with the average controller reported in literature.

This paper presents a Furuta pendulum as a test-bed to experimentally validate automatic control strategies or theoretical concepts associated with nonlinear systems. Herein, the modeling, simulation, and construction of a Furuta pendulum test-bed are introduced step-by-step. The development of the Furuta pendulum mathematical model is achieved by using Lagrange equations of motion. In contrast with other works, the development of this model includes an analysis of the system kinematics. Also, a numerical simulation of the mathematical model is performed via Matlab-Simulink. Furthermore, with the purpose of presenting a different tool for the modeling and simulation of dynamic systems, a graphical model and a graphical simulation of the Furuta pendulum are carried out by means of Working Model 3D. Moreover, a computer aided design of the system under study is accomplished through SolidWorks, based on such a design a test-bed is built. With the intention of verifying that the test-bed built behaves according to the models (numerical one and graphical one) presented herein, experiments with the test-bed in open-loop are carried out by using Matlab-Simulink, ControlDesk, and a DS1104 board from dSPACE.

The increasing heterogeneity of wheeled mobile robot (WMR) architectures, including differential-drive, Ackermann, omnidirectional, and reconfigurable platforms, poses a major challenge for defining a unified, scalable kinematic representation. Most existing formulations are tailored to specific mechanical layouts, limiting analytical coherence, cross-platform interoperability, and the systematic reuse of modeling, odometry, and motion-related algorithms. This work introduces a generalized kinematic modeling framework that provides a mathematically consistent formulation applicable to arbitrary WMR configurations. Wheel–ground velocity relationships and non-holonomic constraints are expressed through a concise vector formulation that maps wheel motions to chassis velocities, ensuring consistency with established models while remaining independent of the underlying mechanical structure. A parameterized wheel descriptor encodes all relevant geometric and kinematic properties, enabling the modular assembly of complete robot models by aggregating wheel-level relations. The framework is evaluated through numerical simulations on four structurally distinct platforms: differential-drive, Ackermann, three-wheel omnidirectional (3, 0), and 4WD. Results show that the proposed formulation accurately reproduces the expected kinematic behavior across these fundamentally different architectures and provides a coherent and consistent representation of their motion. The unified representation further provides a common kinematic backbone that is directly compatible with odometry, motion-control, and simulation pipelines, facilitating the systematic retargeting of algorithms across heterogeneous robot platforms without architecture-specific reformulation. Additional simulation studies under realistic physics-based conditions show that the proposed formulation preserves coherent kinematic behavior during complex trajectory execution and supports the explicit incorporation of geometric imperfections, such as wheel mounting misalignments, when such parameters are available. By consolidating traditionally separate derivations into a single coherent formulation, this work establishes a rigorous, scalable, and architecture-agnostic foundation for unified kinematic modeling of wheeled mobile robots, with particular relevance for modular, reconfigurable, and cross-architecture robotic systems.

A new bio-inspired meta-heuristic, called the micro artificial immune system (MAIS), has been developed in order to reduce the rates of pollution for a specific region of Mexico City through the optimization of vehicular flow. Simulation of urban mobility (SUMO) was used to simulate the effects of the programming of the traffic lights obtained by the MAIS. Currently, pollution and travel times from one place to another are increasing due to the number of inhabitants that live in big cities, which has generated a decrease in people’s quality of life. Hence, we propose the optimization of the programming of the sequences of traffic lights through this bio-inspired meta-heuristic. The obtained results show that the MAIS outperforms most of the algorithms tested in this research.

In this paper, we incorporate a local search procedure into a micro differential evolution algorithm MED with the aim of solving the HappyCat function. Our purpose is to find out if our proposal is more competitive than a Ray-ES algorithm. We test our micro Differential Evolution algorithm (µDE) on HappyCat and HGBat functions. The results that we obtained with micro-DE are better compared with the results the original RayES reference algorithm. This analysis supports our conjecture that a reduced population DE hybridized with a local search (Ray search) is a key combination in dealing with this function. Our results support the hypothesis that a well-focused micro population is more accurate and efficient than existing techniques, representing (that of micro-algorithms) a serious competitor because of its efficiency and accuracy. In fact, the proposed (but never solved) HGBat function can be dealt with, showing the scalability and potential future uses of our technique.

There are several tools, frameworks, and algorithms to solve information sharing from multiple tasks and robots. Some applications such as ROS, Kafka, and MAVLink cover most problems when using operating systems. However, they cannot be used for particular problems that demand optimization of resources. Therefore, the objective was to design a solution to fit the resources of small vehicles. The methodology consisted of defining the group of vehicles with low performance or are not compatible with high-level known applications; design a reduced, modular, and compatible architecture; design a producer-consumer algorithm that adjusts to the simultaneous localization and communication of multiple vehicles with UWB sensors; validate the operation with an interception task. The results showed the feasibility of performing architecture for embedded systems compatible with other applications managing information through the proposed algorithm allowed to complete the interception task between two vehicles. Another result was to determine the system’s efficiency by scaling the memory size and comparing its performance. The work’s contributions show the areas of opportunity to develop architectures focusing on the optimization of robot resources and complement existing ones.