Multi-robot coordination and safe learning using barrier certificates

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop a formal safety framework for collision-free and connectivity sustained motion in multi-robot coordination and learning based control. This safety framework is designed with barrier certificates, which provably guarantee the safety of dynamical systems based on the set invariance principle. The barrier certificates are enforced on the system using an online optimization-based controller such that minimal changes to the existing control strategies are required to guarantee safety. The proposed safety barrier certificates are validated on real multi-robot systems consisting of multiple Khepera robots, Magellan Pro robot, GRITS-Bots, and Crazyflie quadrotors.