Time-varying formation control for mobile robots: Algorithms and experiments

摘要

Time-varying formation control problems for mobile robot swarm systems are investigated. Firstly, for the formation control, the mobile robot is regarded as a point-mass system, and the dynamics of each mobile robot is modeled by single integrator. Then, consensus-based formation protocols are presented for mobile robots to achieve a predefined time-varying formation. Necessary and sufficient conditions for mobile robot swarm systems to achieve time-varying formations are proposed. Moreover, a formation platform, which consists of four omni-directional mobile robots is introduced, where a Ultra-Wind Band (UWB) based indoor navigation system (INS) is used. Finally, simulation and experimental examples are presented for the mobile robot swarm systems to achieve a time-varying formation respectively.