Dynamic role assignment algorithm for robot formation control

In the paper, a dynamic role assignment algorithm is proposed for formation control of multiple mobile robots. First, the degree of difficulty for a robot been assigned a specified character in a formation is defined as the character cost. Second, define the character set fitness of a robot formation by determining the character cost of each robot. Finally, select the best character set of a formation by calculating the character set fitness. Meanwhile, a motion controller and an obstacle avoidance mechanism are also designed in this research based on the dynamic equation for robots to prevent collision between themselves. The developed algorithms are applied to the formation control of a group omni-directional driven robots. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed dynamic role assignment algorithm is more efficient than that of a fixed role assignment.