Virtual fields and behaviour blending for the coordinated navigation of robot teams: Some experimental results

• A new method to guide the navigation of robot teams has been developed.
• The method is based on virtual fields and behaviours blending.
• The method has been consistently tested both in simulations and experiments.
• Achieved results that show the reliability of the method are presented in this paper.

This paper proposes an approach to manage the collective movement of robot groups, based on virtual fields, situation awareness and basic behaviour blending. Being of reactive nature, the method is intended for local navigation. The robots are anonymous, the navigation system is fully decentralized and there in not need of leader or specific coordination protocol. Robots can simply navigate holding the cohesion of the group or they can also navigate building up some kind of formation. The method can be implemented providing a set of simple suitable rules to the robots. It has been consistently tested both in simulations and experiments carried out on robot formations, proving to be reliable. The main results achieved are presented in this paper.