Review and Simulation of a Novel Formation Building Algorithm While Enabling Obstacle Avoidance

Abstract

Technically, a group of more than two wheeled mobile robots working collectively towards a common goal are known as a multi-robot system. An increasing number of industries have implemented multi-robot systems to eliminate the risk of human injuries while working on hazardous tasks, and to improve productivity. Globally, engineers are continuously researching better, simple, and faster cooperative Control algorithms to provide a Control strategy where each agent in the robot formation can communicate effectively and achieve a consensus in their position, orientation and speed. This paper explores a novel Formation Building Algorithm and its global stability around a configuration vector. A simulation in MATLAB ® was carried out to examine the performance of the Algorithm for two geometric formations and a fixed number of robots. In addition, an obstacle avoidance technique was presented assuming that all robots are equipped with range sensors. In particular, a uniform rounded obstacle is used to analyze the performance of the technique with the use of detailed geometric calculations.