Navigation of a compartmentalized robot system

Abstract

After making progression in developing the fundamental problems related to single-robot control, many researchers swerved and diverged their focus to studying multi-robot coordination. This research aims to take the motion planning and control (MPC) problem of a multi-robot system into a new space by considering a compartmentalized robot. An efficient variant of globally rigid formation, in which multiple car-like units are adjoint and move in parallel without collisions. The motion is governed by one of the sub-units acting as a leader, while other units maintain the fixed distance amongst each other and the leader in a rigid formation. The minimum distance technique is an important input to facilitate collision avoidance, robot decision making, and robot navigation. In this study a novel method to analytically compute the minimum distance between the closest point on the line segments of rectangular protective region and the obstacle is presented. Utilizing the Lyapunov-based Control Scheme a set of autonomous controllers are designed. Computer simulations of the proposed Lyapunov-based controllers for the compartmentalized robot are presented in interesting scenarios to show the efficacy of the unique set of controllers. In these simulations, the compartmentalized robot shows strict maintenance of a rigid formation with efficient collision and obstacle avoidance. The results open up research in the design and implementation of controllers by considering multiple compartmentalized robots into swarm models, splitting and re-joining units, and applying rotational leadership ideas.