Stable flocking algorithm for multi-robot systems formation control

Abstract

The problem of multiple robots system formation using a distributed control method is studied in this paper. The main idea of this paper is that uses swarm flocking control algorithm to implement the ldquobiodsrdquo model of Reynolds among multi-robots. With the help of graph theory, we propose a provably-stable flocking control law, which ensures that the internal group formation is stabilized to a desired shape, while all the robotspsila velocities and directions converge to the same. Player/stage simulation results show that the proposed method can be efficiently applied to multiple robots formation control. With the characteristic of player/stage, the algorithm in this paper can be implemented on the real robots with so few or no changes.