Decentralized Control of Autonomous Mobile Robots Formations using Velocity Potentials

Mobile robot formations differ in accordance to the mission, environment and robot abilities. In the case of decentralized control, the ability to achieve the shapes of these formations has to be built in the controllers of each autonomous robot. In this paper two types of basic formations are investigated: self-organizing and geometric. Leader follower approach is applied for controllers design to drive the robots toward the goal. Simulations show that that self-organizing formations tend toward platoon formation. Geometric formations approach is also simulated for the case of V-formations passing through a passage. The results confirm the ability of velocity potential approach for motion control of both self-organizing and geometric formations