Minirobots Moving at Different Partial Speeds

Abstract

In this paper, we present the mathematical point of view of our research group regarding the multi-robot systems evolving in a multi-temporal way. We solve the minimum multi-time volume problem as optimal control problem for a group of planar micro-robots moving in the same direction at different partial speeds. We are motivated to solve this problem because a similar minimum-time optimal control problem is now in vogue for micro-scale and nano-scale robotic systems. Applying the (weak and strong) multi-time maximum principle, we obtain necessary conditions for optimality and that are used to guess a candidate control policy. The complexity of finding this policy for arbitrary initial conditions is dominated by the computation of a planar convex hull. We pointed this idea by applying the technique of multi-time Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman PDE. Our results can be extended to consider obstacle avoidance by explicit parameterization of all possible optimal control policies.