Distributed formation control of networked mobile robots in environments with obstacles

A distributed control mechanism for ground moving nonholonomic robots is proposed. It enables a group of mobile robots to autonomously manage formation shapes while navigating through environments with obstacles. The formation can be maintained without the need of any inter-robot communication. Obstacle avoidance is designed to be performed by the individual robots themselves. Formation scaling is implemented to ensure the formation shape is maintained for as long as possible. If the formation fails to hold its shape when navigating through environments with obstacles, formation morphing has been incorporated to preserve the interconnectivity of the robots, thus reducing the possibility of losing robots from the formation. The algorithm has been implemented on a nonholonomic multi-robot system for empirical analysis. Experimental results demonstrate formations completing an obstacle course within 12 seconds with zero collisions. Furthermore, the system is capable of withstanding up to 25% sensor noise.