-->PONE-D-26-22794-->-->Event-triggered MPC-PID based trajectory tracking control for differential drive mobile robots-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Wang,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Daxiong Ji

Academic Editor

PLOS One

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Additional Editor Comments:

The review was completed. Reviewers thinks that the paper is not well motivated and its originality is unclear as there are lots of existing research on ET-based PID control methods and their applications. There are also many formulation and writting issues needs to be improved. The current version has to be refined.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: In the abstract and conclusion, the contribution of this paper is not well presented. In the conclusion and abstract, highlight the novelty of the paper.

The introduction is weak and should include the research question, the aim of the paper and the contribution.

In related work…. Many researches work on this idea. What is really the novelty as compared to other studies? What is the new and the difference between the previous works and present work?.

Improve the quality of literature along with the latest literature.

The explanation of the related work needs to be criticized and improved in general.

What about last updating in this topic and new references from 2020-2026? The survey of existing literature is not sufficient. It would useful to include in the Introduction of the paper some discussion on other possible real applications of the obtained results.

Figures are not clear. Clear diagrams and figures are required for readers to have clear images.

Improve the quality of figures for better visibility. It is blur that should be adjusted.

Weak conclusion and the future work were Meaningless in this article.

Conclusion should be more specific with improvement writing quality.

A suggestion for future work should be added in the conclusion section.

- Rewrite the references according to journal template.

-Please strictly follow the instructions to the format specified in the journal template for preparing the paper

The format and English writing of this paper should be improved. The paper needs language revision.

Reviewer #2: 1- In the introduction of the paper, the general operation of event-triggered MPC is listed, and references [21] and [22] that apply event-triggering to the trajectory tracking of mobile robots are mentioned. However, for differential drive robots, several existing works have directly studied event-triggered MPC or event-triggered predictive control. The author only briefly mentioned this and did not conduct a detailed analysis of the essential differences between the method in this paper and those in [21] and [22]. Additionally, [21] has already proposed a concept similar to "disturbance-triggered event + predictive tracking". The author should clearly state: The novelty of this paper lies in "integrating MPC with PID in a hierarchical manner and using event-triggering in the outer loop", but the hierarchical structure itself is not novel. It is recommended to rewrite the introduction to present the differences of existing methods in terms of "whether event-triggered", "whether hierarchical", "whether handling actuator dynamics", and "whether ensuring stability" in a tabular form, thereby clearly defining the contribution of this paper.

2- In the paper, the inner loop PID is designed as an independent speed servo, and it is assumed that it can quickly track the set points of the outer loop. However, the event trigger causes the outer ring set point to remain constant. Within a longer holding period, the PID will only adjust based on the error between the fixed set point and the actual speed. When the robot is subjected to external disturbances or changes in the reference trajectory, the PID may not be able to fully compensate for the tracking lag introduced by event triggering. The author did not analyze the impact of this coupling on the overall tracking error, nor did they provide a quantitative relationship between the inner loop bandwidth and the outer loop trigger interval. It is suggested to add a section to discuss the matching conditions between the event trigger hold time and the dynamic response time of the inner loop.

3- Although input and input increment constraints are added to the optimization problem in the text, the actual actuator still has saturation (Eq. (20)). The output of the inner loop PID is saturated and then passes through the first-order inertia link, which may cause the actual input of the actuator to deviate from the ideal input assumed in the MPC prediction. This deviation was simply regarded as a bounded disturbance, but its impact on the closed-loop performance was not quantified in the stability analysis. It is recommended to adopt an anti-saturation compensation mechanism or explicitly consider saturation in the design of the inner ring.

4- In the current work, there are the existing research on ET-based PID control methods and their applications like event-triggered adaptive PID fault-tolerant control of underactuated ASVs under saturation constraint, ftilos-based path following control for underactuated usvs with obstacle avoidance: a planning-guidance-control integrated design, etc., which can highlight the contributions and highlights of this work.

5- The manuscript contains numerous grammatical errors and unclear expressions. The author should carefully review it and eliminate such unnecessary mistakes.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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-->PONE-D-26-22794R1-->-->Event-triggered MPC-PID based trajectory tracking control for differential drive mobile robots-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Wang,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 24 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

As the corresponding author, your ORCID iD is verified in the submission system and will appear in the published article. PLOS supports the use of ORCID, and we encourage all coauthors to register for an ORCID iD and use it as well. Please encourage your coauthors to verify their ORCID iD within the submission system before final acceptance, as unverified ORCID iDs will not appear in the published article. Only  the individual author can complete the verification step; PLOS staff cannot  verify ORCID iDs on behalf of authors.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Daxiong Ji

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Journal Requirements:

If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: The manuscript entitled Event-triggered MPC-PID based trajectory tracking control for differential drive mobile robots has been accepted without changes

Reviewer #3: The manuscript proposes an event-triggered MPC-PID hierarchical control framework for trajectory tracking of differential-drive mobile robots. The separation among the MPC setpoint, actuator command, and actual actuator velocity is clearly explained, and the ablation study provides useful evidence regarding the role of the inner-loop PID servo. Nevertheless, several issues should be addressed before the manuscript can be considered for publication. Please see the attachment for details.

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-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

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NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: comments.pdf

Event-triggered MPC-PID based trajectory tracking control for differential drive mobile robots

PONE-D-26-22794R2

Dear Dr. Wang,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. For questions related to billing, please contact billing support.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Daxiong Ji

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?  For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.-->

Reviewer #3: No

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