Feedback Control For Rob ot Formation Maneuvers

Abstract

This papers looks at moving a group of mobile robots in formation via a virtual leader-follower scheme. A novel way of introducing feedback from followers to a virtual leader is presented. Hardware results are presented for Hilare-type mobile robots. 1 Introduction Moving a group of agents in formation has received a fair amount of attention in the literature. There are dozens of papers which look at the problem. Many take a biological approach [1] in which they try to mimic birds flocking or herds migrating. However most fall under either a leader-follower type scheme or an emergent behavior scheme. In [2] a leader-follower scheme is presented for mobile robots. The leader is supposed to have some trajectory (possibly given by a path planner) and the other robots track the leader. As a variation on this scheme, a robot may track the average position of his two closest neighbors. Another type of leader follower scheme is presented in [3]. Here, the leader is a virtual structure. The s...