Graspless coordinated transportation over natural flat terrain

Abstract

This work presents preliminary considerations in the development of a multirobot system for transportation of load with no exchange of information between robots and no force sensing under the assumptions that the load has a uniform distribution of mass and that motion is performed over natural flat terrain. The robots in the team are homogeneous machines with nonholonomic limitations and passive suspension mechanisms. Each robot adjusts its velocity by sensing the position of the load through an on-board passive arm, so that a global coordination scheme can emerge from local control. Experiments with two and three robots cooperating are reported.