Formation shape transition of multiple mobile robots in leader-follower method

<p>This paper presents a formation shape transition technique of multiple mobile robots in the leader-follower method as a new function that gives flexibility to the formation control of mobile robots with multiple sonars. First, we propose basic shape transition methods for the case of two mobile robots under formation control by the leader-follower method, and then extend the methods to the shape transition of three mobile robots. Since the multiple sonars attached to the mobile robot are located forward, including the left and right sides, there is a constraint on the formation shape feasible by the leader - follower method. In the case of two mobile robots, the follower must be positioned behind the leader. Therefore, there are three shapes of the follower relative to the leader: line, right-back, left-back. In the case of three mobile robots, t hree types of line, zigzag, triangle shapes are considered. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated by experiments using real mobile robots.</p>

A Distributed Model Predictive Control for Multiple Mobile Robots with the Model Uncertainty

In this paper, a distributed predictive control with the model uncertainty which uses the data-driven strategy and robust theory (data-driven RDMPC) is proposed for the formation control of multiple mobile robots. The robust performance objective minimization is applied to replace the quadratic performance objective minimization to establish the optimization problem, where the model uncertainty is considered in the distributed system. The control policy is derived by applying the data-driven strategy, and the future predictive value is obtained by employing the linear law in the historical data. Lyapunov theory is referred to analyze the stability of the mobile robot formation system. The effectiveness of the proposed method is proved by a set of simulation experiments.