Realization of Consensus with Collision and Obstacle Avoidance in an Unknown Environment for Multiple Robots

Abstract

In this paper, we present a fuzzy logic-based control approach for the collision avoidance of a multi-robot system. A simple and continuous-time consensus law is implemented to achieve the rendezvous of the multiple mobile robot agents. A fuzzy logic-based controller is designed over a potential field method, as fuzzy algorithms are often robust and are not very sensitive to changing environments. Fuzzy logic is also useful for unknown and semi-unstructured environments. The algorithms are applicable to a general N-robot system and they are applied to three robots which are available in the host lab. Detailed information on the real-time implementation of the algorithm on three Pioneer mobile robots are presented. We have included simulations and experiments carried out to verify the effectiveness of our approach in this paper.