Title :
On the internal dynamics of formations of unicycle robots
Author :
Consolini, Luca ; Morbidi, Fabio ; Prattichizzo, Domenico ; Tosques, Mario
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Civil Eng., Univ. of Parma, Parma, Italy
Abstract :
This paper studies a general class of formations of unicycle robots. One of the robots plays the role of the leader and the formation is induced through a constraint function F that depends on the position and the orientation of the vehicles. We investigate the flexibility of such formations with respect to the leader´s reference frame by introducing the notion of formation internal dynamics, we characterize its equilibria and provide sufficient conditions for their existence. The theory is specialized to a particular constraint function F that leads to a formation where robot i follows a convex combination of the positions of the preceding i-1 robots. Sufficient conditions are presented in this scenario that guarantee that the position and orientation of the vehicles with respect to the leader´s reference frame are confined in a specific polyhedral region, regardless of the trajectory of the leader, provided that its curvature is sufficiently small.
Keywords :
mobile robots; multi-robot systems; position control; robot dynamics; constraint function; formation internal dynamics; polyhedral region; unicycle robots; vehicle orientation; Lead; Manifolds; Robot kinematics; Trajectory; Vehicle dynamics; Vehicles;
Conference_Titel :
Decision and Control (CDC), 2010 49th IEEE Conference on
Conference_Location :
Atlanta, GA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-7745-6
DOI :
10.1109/CDC.2010.5717188