Obstacle avoidance controller generating attainable set-points for the navigation of Multi-Robot System

Abstract

This paper considers the navigation in formation of a mobile Multi-Robot System (MRS) in presence of obstacles. In such areas, the collision avoidance between the robots themselves and with other obstacles (static and dynamic) is a challenging issue. To deal with it, a reactive and a distributed control architecture is built. The navigation in formation of the MRS is ensured while tracking a global virtual structure (first controller). Limit-cycle principle is used to compute the setpoint of the obstacle avoidance task (second controller). In this paper, kinematic constraints of the robot are taken into account in order to generate an attainable set-point. The objective is to guarantee safety of the mobile robots with respect to their maximum velocities. Simulation and experimental results validate the proposed contributions.