Robust Formation Coordination of Robot Swarms with Nonlinear Dynamics and Unknown Disturbances: Design and Experiments

Hu J., TURGUT A. E., Lennox B., Arvin F.

IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, vol.69, pp.114-118, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 69
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1109/tcsii.2021.3074705
  • Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Computer & Applied Sciences, INSPEC, Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.114-118
  • Keywords: Robots, Robot kinematics, Swarm robotics, Target tracking, Protocols, Circuits and systems, Robot sensing systems, Collective behavior, networked systems, formation coordination, robust control, mobile robots, swarm robotics, MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS, TRACKING
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

IEEECoordination of robot swarms has received significant research interest over the last decade due to its wide real-world applications including precision agriculture, target surveillance, planetary exploration, etc. Many of these practical activities can be formulated as a formation tracking problem. This brief aims to design a robust control strategy for networked robot swarms subjected to nonlinear dynamics and unknown disturbances. Firstly, a robust adaptive formation coordination protocol is proposed for robot swarms, which utilizes only local information for tracking a dynamic target with uncertain maneuvers. A rigorous theoretical proof utilizing the Lyapunov stability approach is then provided to guarantee the control performance. Towards the end, real-time hardware experiments with wheeled mobile robots are conducted to validate the robustness and feasibility of the proposed formation coordination approach.