Behavioral control for multi-robot perimeter patrol: A Finite State Automata approach

This paper proposes a multiple robot control algorithm to approach the problem of patrolling an open or closed line. The algorithm is fully decentralized, i.e., no communication occurs between robots or with a central station. Robots behave according only to their sensing and computing capabilities to ensure high scalability and robustness towards robots´ fault. The patrolling algorithm is designed in the framework of behavioral control and it is based on the concept of Action: an higher level of abstraction with respect to the behaviors. Each Action is obtained by combining more elementary behaviors in the Null-Space-Behavioral framework. A Finite-State-Automata is designed as supervisor in charge of selecting the appropriate action. The approach has been validated in simulation as well as experimentally with a patrol of 3 Pioneer robots available at the Distributed Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Tennessee.