Simulation Analysis of Formation Control Design of Leader-Follower Robot Using Fuzzy Logic Controller

Abstract

The follower leader is one method that is applied to multi-robotic systems (robot swarm). The reliability of the leader-follower approach lies in the essential ability of the robot leader in path planning, and the robot follower in maneuvers following the leader robot within safe, constant distances and angles so that the overall formation of the formation maintained. The motion of the robot leader significantly affects the robot follower. If the leader experiences interference, then the whole robot will receive the impact of the obstruction, and the navigation and formation will be irregular. FLC is applied to control angular and distance error in the movement of the robot to make it smoother. A simulation in VREP was conducted where three robots are assigned to reach the target while avoiding obstacles along the way. FLC receives inputs from distance and angle sensors, and the output is robot navigation presented by PWM motor controlling the velocity and orientation of the robot, both leader and followers. The simulation was conducted to determine the performance of the proposed FLC. The FLC algorithm has been obtained in the tuning process and implemented in robots to maintain distance from obstacles. By implementing the FLC method, leader-follower robots can make their own decisions in navigation when facing obstacles towards predetermined targets. The simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed method.