Abstract
This paper describes the design of new centralized acceleration-based controllers for the multitask problem of motion planning and control of a coordinated lead-carrier team fixed in a dual-formation within an obstacle-ridden environment. A dϕ-strategy, where d and ϕ are Euclidean measures with respect to the lead robot, is developed to ensure virtual connectivity of the carrier robots to the lead robot. This connectivity, built into the system itself, inherently ensures globally rigid formation between each lead-carrier pair of the team. Moreover, a combination of target configuration, dϕ-strategy, orientation consensus, and avoidance of end-effector of robots results in a second, locally rigid formation (not infinitesimally rigid). Therefore, for the first time, a dual-formation control problem of a lead-carrier team of mobile manipulators is considered. This and other kinodynamic constraints have been treated simultaneously via the overarching Lyapunov-based control scheme, essentially a potential field method favored in the field of robotics. The formulation of this new scheme, demonstrated effectively via computer simulations, is timely, given that the current proposed engineering solutions, allowing autonomous vehicles on public roads, include the development of special lanes imbued with special sensors and wireless technologies.
Highlights
A wide spectrum of the “formation rigidity” has appeared in literature using the nomenclature from [2, 3]; on one end there are split/rejoin maneuvers known as minimally rigid formations [2, 3] which are required in applications such as reconnaissance, sampling, and surveillance, while on the other end there are globally rigid formations which are required in applications that require cooperative payload transportation [4,5,6]
Let Ai, i ∈ {0, 1, . . . , n} be the ith 2-link mobile manipulator (2MM) consisting of a car-like wheeled platform with a 2-link planar arm mounted on the midfront axle of the wheeled platform
This paper heralds a new set of centralized acceleration-based control laws that successfully tackles motion planning and dual-formation control of a lead-carriers team of connected and autonomous 2-link mobile manipulators, in a priori known environment including our roads and highways
Summary
In order to recognize this difference, we consider the swarm to be virtually connected and behave as an autonomous and intelligent robot system, controlled via the Lyapunov-based control scheme Another advantage of the virtual connectivity is the fact that the lead-carrier team have the capability to satisfactorily complete diverse tasks which is not possible with merely cooperative agents. While the swarm intelligence ensures energy efficiency and reduced costs, the new dual-formation ensures multitasking, job precision and another solution to applications on roads such as convoying and payload transfer It is the authors’ belief that the problem of maintaining a dual-formation of a lead-carrier team with virtual connectively within an obstacle cluttered environment such as a heavy-traffic highway is treated for the first time within a framework of LbCS. This is very useful in situations involving loading/offloading on docks, mines, and military bases and the lane changing and maneuverability on roads and highways, where precision is paramount
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