Title: A communication-based multirobot rigid formation control system: design and analysis

Authors: Lei Cheng, Yongji Wang, Quanmin Zhu

Addresses: Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Department of Control Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People Republic of China. ' Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Department of Control Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People Republic of China. ' Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS), University of the West of England (UWE), Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK

Abstract: In this study, a system with cooperative formation control of group of mobile robots is presented to provide a framework to build up complex systems through communication channels. An improved closed-up multirobot rigid formation control algorithm is developed to efficiently implement the systems without markers and other environment constraints under certain complex situations. Furthermore, a fault-tolerance mechanism for multirobot formation is firstly introduced, based on hierarchy graph of formation theory. This study covers the design and analysis for the overall communication-based system. The results have been obtained via a series of virtual robot simulations and experiments by using three mobile robots, which have well demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed procedure.

Keywords: communication-based control systems; multi-agents; multi-robot formation; fault tolerance; multi-agent systems; agent-based systems; formation control; mobile robots; robot control; robot collaboration; cooperating robots; virtual robots; simulation; multi-robot formation; multiple robots.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2006.008643

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2006 Vol.1 No.1, pp.13 - 22

Published online: 13 Jan 2006 *

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