Formation control experiment of autonomous jellyfish removal robot system JEROS

Abstract

The proliferation of jellyfish is threatening marine ecosystem and has caused severe damage to marine-related industries. An autonomous jellyfish removal robot system, named JEROS (Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm), has been developed to cope with this problem. This paper presents formation control of JEROS and related experimental results through field tests. The JEROS is extended to multi-agent robot system and employs the leaderfollower algorithm for formation control. The Theta* path planning algorithm is employed to generate an efficient path. Three prototypes of JEROS are implemented, and the feasibility of their formation control and the performance of jellyfish removal were demonstrated through field tests in Masan Bay located in the southern coast of South Korea.