Multi-robot coordination for jams in congested systems

•This paper describes a novel coordination methodology of mobile robots for jams.•This methodology is based on an interaction force and behavior regulation rule.•The improved interaction force and behavior regulation rule are applied to ACC.•The effectiveness of the coordination methodology in addition to ACC is shown.

This paper describes a novel coordination methodology of autonomous mobile robots for jams in a congested system with bottlenecks. This methodology consists of two approaches based on an interaction force and behavior regulation rule for a robot. The former is for directly controlling velocity of a robot in the behavioral dynamics, and the latter is for amplifying the interaction force so that velocity of a robot is externally reduced in a certain place. In the first approach, a previously-proposed robot behavior control technique by the authors that utilizes the interaction force among robots is improved, and it enables the robots to reduce their velocity in response to not only a jam but also a decelerating robot immediately in front of them. In the second approach, a behavior regulation rule in connection with the interaction force is designed and provided in congested segments on a lane. Thus, the amplified interaction force causes the robots to move more slowly in the congested segments. The improved robot behavior control technique and behavior regulation rule are implemented in simulation experiments and compared to the previous robot behavior control technique and adaptive cruise control (ACC) that has been proposed for vehicles. Furthermore, the improved interaction force and behavior regulation rule are appended to ACC, and the potential of using ACC with the two approaches is discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of the improved interaction force and the behavior regulation rule for multi-robot coordination in a congested system with bottlenecks is shown.