Similar Formation Control via Range and Odometry Measurements

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Control Systems
• Multi-Agent Systems
• Autonomous Navigation

Background:

• Multirobot systems require precise formation control for coordinated tasks.
• Achieving similar transformations of a template formation is a complex challenge.
• Existing methods face challenges with localization accuracy and formation integrity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated relative localization and similar formation control scheme.
• To enable multirobot systems to navigate to desired configurations based on range and odometry measurements.
• To address the conflict between persistent excitation for localization and formation accuracy.

Main Methods:

• An integrated scheme combining relative localization and similar formation control.
• Utilizing interrobot and robot-landmark range measurements, along with robot odometry.
• Introduction of an autonomous system to generate persistent excitation, mitigating motion perturbations.

Main Results:

• The proposed scheme successfully solves the similar formation control problem.
• Global asymptotic convergence is proven for directed acyclic graphs (DAGs).
• Numerical simulations and physical experiments validate the effectiveness of the findings.

Conclusions:

• The developed integrated approach effectively achieves similar formation control for multirobot systems.
• The novel method for generating persistent excitation resolves conflicts between localization and formation accuracy.
• The findings are robust, as demonstrated by both simulation and experimental validation.