Abstract
This paper proposes a Multiple Leader Candidate (MLC) structure and a Competitive Position Allocation (CPA) algorithm which can be applicable for various applications including environmental sensing. Unlike previous formation structures such as virtual-leader and actual-leader structures with position allocation including a rigid allocation and an optimization based allocation, the formation employing the proposed MLC structure and CPA algorithm is robust against the fault (or disappearance) of the member robots and reduces the entire cost. In the MLC structure, a leader of the entire system is chosen among leader candidate robots. The CPA algorithm is the decentralized position allocation algorithm that assigns the robots to the vertex of the formation via the competition of the adjacent robots. The numerical simulations and experimental results are included to show the feasibility and the performance of the multiple robot system employing the proposed MLC structure and the CPA algorithm.
Highlights
Formation control of a multi-robot system has been a big challenge for the robot control society.Contrasting with a single robot system, since the robots in the formation are interconnected with others, higher level control techniques have been required
We show the Multiple Leader Candidate (MLC) structure with the multiple leader candidates and Competitive Position Allocation (CPA) algorithm based on competition using local information
The proposed MLC structure and CPA algorithm have been applied to a real multiple robot system which has four small wheeled mobile robots (110 mm × 80 mm × 130 mm, see Figure 12)
Summary
Formation control of a multi-robot system has been a big challenge for the robot control society. In [25,26], the relationship between the candidates and the leader position is rigid, and the followers are assigned to the formation using rigid allocation Whereas these leader election algorithms achieve robustness against the fault of the leader, they do not reduce the moving cost of the entire system. Unlike the previous formation control strategies based on rigid-allocation, such as the actual-leader strategy and consensus-based formation control, the entire system can be maintained despite the faults of the leader or the followers because the other robots replace the broken or missing robots. In contrast with the formation control strategies using all information of all robots, such as the virtual-leader strategy and the optimization-based position allocation algorithm, the cost of the entire system is reduced since the local information is used for the on-line position allocation. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed control algorithms, numerical simulations and experimental results are presented in Section 4, and, in Section 5, the conclusions of the study are given
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
