Title: A new procedure for multi-mode sequential flocking with application to multiple non-holonomic mobile robot motion control: mode description and integration principle

Authors: Lei Cheng; Wen-Xia Xu; Huai-Yu Wu; Quan-Min Zhu; Yong-Ji Wang; Hassan Nouri

Addresses: Engineering Research Center of Metallurgical Automation and Measurement Technology, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China; Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS161QY, UK. ' Engineering Research Center of Metallurgical Automation and Measurement Technology, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China. ' Engineering Research Center of Metallurgical Automation and Measurement Technology, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China. ' Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS161QY, UK. ' Department of Control Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China. ' Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS161QY, UK

Abstract: This is the first of two-part paper that investigates the multi-mode sequential flocking with application to multiple non-holonomic mobile robot motion control. To provide a new procedure to avoid collisions and obstacles in the process of multi-robot|s sequential flocking, this paper presents the design of a multi-model flocking control for multiple mobile robots in terms of behaviour-based robotics. Some nature-imitating behaviour modes are integrated into the new sequential flocking strategy, including single-robot potential-based behaviour, single-robot wall-following behaviour, multi-robot rigid-body bouncing behaviour, multi-robot pathtracking behaviour and their fusion state. In this way, the efficient collision and obstacle avoidance in flocking motion can be achieved.

Keywords: multi-robot flocking; multiple robots; flocking control; multi-mode sequential flocking; behaviour-based robotics; nonholonomic robots; mobile robots; motion control; robot motion; collision avoidance; obstacle avoidance; nature-imitating behaviour; flocking motion; wall following; bouncing; path tracking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2012.043939

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2012 Vol.15 No.1, pp.39 - 47

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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