Multirobot formation with sensor fusion-based localization in unknown environment

Abstract

Multirobot cooperation enhancing the efficiency of numerous applications such as maintenance, rescue, inspection in cluttered unknown environments is the interesting topic recently. However, designing a formation strategy for multiple robots which enables the agents to follow the predefined master robot during navigation actions without a prebuilt map is challenging due to the uncertainties of self-localization and motion control. In this paper, we present a multirobot system to form the symmetrical patterns effectively within the unknown environment deployed randomly. To enable self-localization during group formatting, we propose the sensor fusion system leveraging sensor fusion from the ultrawideband-based positioning system, Inertial Measurement Unit orientation system, and wheel encoder to estimate robot locations precisely. Moreover, we propose a global path planning algorithm considering the kinematic of the robot’s action inside the workspace as a metric space. Experiments are conducted on a set of robots called Falcon with a conventional four-wheel skid steering schematic as a case study to validate our proposed path planning technique. The outcome of our trials shows that the proposed approach produces exact robot locations after sensor fusion with the feasible formation tracking of multiple robots system on the simulated and real-world experiments.