A leader-following formation control of a group of mobile robots

Abstract

This paper proposes a leader-following formation control strategy for a group of mobile robots. The nonholonomic constraints of the mobile robots, instead of the usual point-mass assumption, are taken into account in the design of the formation control. The proposed formation control computes desired driving force and steering torque, instead of desired translational and angular velocities, for each robot. The proposed control consists of a formation control scheme and a kinematic trajectory generation scheme for the leader of a group. In the design of the proposed control schemes, the Lyapunov stability theorem is used as a mathematical tool. The leader follows its desired trajectory while the rest of robots are following the leader in a specified formation. Under certain conditions, the proposed formation control guarantees asymptotic stability while keeping all internal signals bounded. The effectiveness of the proposed control has been shown with realistic computer simulations. Copyright © 2011 by ASME.