A Practical Model Predictive Control for A Group of Unicycle Mobile Robots

This paper presents the validation of a control algorithm for a group of unicycle mobile robots based on nonlinear model predictive control. The paper focuses on the practical application of the control algorithm. The architecture for the multiagent system employed in this paper is considered as a sequentially decentralized method. A combination of steepest descent and line search techniques is used to solve the optimization problem. Using transport in a warehouse as a case study, the strength of the proposed control algorithm is shown in experiments of up to 12 robots. A performance analysis of the influence of different control parameters is given.