Abstract
In this paper, we demonstrate a method for self-organization and leader following of nonholonomic robotic swarm based on spring damper mesh. By self-organization of swarm robots we mean the emergence of order in a swarm as the result of interactions among the single robots. In other words the self-organization of swarm robots mimics some natural behavior of social animals like ants among others. The dynamics of two-wheel robot is derived, and a relation between virtual forces and robot control inputs is defined in order to establish stable swarm formation. Two cases of swarm control are analyzed. In the first case the swarm cohesion is achieved by virtual spring damper mesh connecting nearest neighboring robots without designated leader. In the second case we introduce a swarm leader interacting with nearest and second neighbors allowing the swarm to follow the leader. The paper ends with numeric simulation for performance evaluation of the proposed control method.
Highlights
Swarm robotics includes the both robots design and the developments in the controls of their behavior
By self-organization of swarm robots we mean the emergence of order in a robotic system as the result of interactions among the single robots constituting the swarm
It is shown that the technique based on the control of one robot called swarm leader with properly introduced inter-robot forces may lead to the formation of relative stable ordered structure of the swarm
Summary
Swarm robotics includes the both robots design and the developments in the controls of their behavior. Robotic swarm interconnected by virtual spring and damper connected in parallel was proposed by Chen et al [10] where formation control of satellites under a gravitational potential field is investigated. The swarm control algorithm is similar in the behavior of point mass particles interconnected with spring dampers. Such swarm mimics the behavior of viscoelastic fluid which falls into the category of physics-based method. It is shown that the technique based on the control of one robot called swarm leader with properly introduced inter-robot forces may lead to the formation of relative stable ordered structure of the swarm. In addition we consider the swarm leader technique in the case of avoiding of obstacles
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