Distributed Receding Horizon Formation Control by Multiple Mobile Robots Using Voronoi-Based Coverage

This paper presents a formation control algorithm for controlling a group of mobile robots, based on distributed receding horizon coverage control. The objective of the formation algorithm is to control multiple mobile robots such that they are arranged in pre-determined geometric patterns. To achieve the desired pattern, centroidal Voronoi configuration concept is used. The convergence requires simultaneous updates for all robots, and exchange of control trajectories between all neighboring agents at each update. Simulations results validate the algorithm and show how the proposed coverage-based formation algorithm, leads the robots to converge to the desired formations.