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In this paper, the motion control of a mobile manipulator subjected to nonholonomic constraints is investigated. The control objective is to design a computed‐torque controller based on the coupled dynamics of the mobile manipulator. The proposed controller achieves the capability of simultaneous tracking of a reference velocity for the mobile base and a reference trajectory for the end‐effector. The aforementioned reference velocity and trajectory are defined in the task space, such task setting imitates the actual working conditions of a mobile manipulator and thus makes the control problem practical. To solve this tracking problem, a steering velocity is firstly designed based on the first‐order kinematic model of the nonholonomic mobile base via dynamic feedback linearization. The main merit of the proposed steering velocity design is that it directly utilizes the reference velocity set in the task space without requiring the knowledge of a reference orientation. A torque controller is subsequently developed based on a proposed Lyapunov function which explicitly considers the coupled dynamics of the mobile manipulator to ensure the mobile base and end‐effector track the reference velocity and trajectory respectively. This proposed computed‐torque controller is able to realize asymptotic stability of both the base velocity tracking error and the end‐effector motion tracking error. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

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