Formation Vector Control of Nonholonomic Mobile Robot Groups

This paper presents a new control method for generating formations of groups of nonholonomic mobile robots with two independently driven wheels. This control method is derived through a modification of the formation vector control previously presented by the authors. This paper also confirms that the control method is capable of generating formations much faster than ever by demonstrating an enclosing behavior in which the multiple mobile robots generate an arc-shaped formation around a target on a recently developed experimental platform. It controls the mobile robots via a Bluetooth wireless network, incorporating visual feedback with a fixed camera to measure the positions and orientations of the robots and the target.