Energy autonomy for resource-constrained multi robot missions

Abstract

One of the key factors for extended autonomy and resilience of multi-robot systems, especially when robots operate on batteries, is their ability to maintain energy sufficiency by recharging when needed. In situations with limited access to charging facilities, robots need to be able to share and coordinate recharging activities, with guarantees that no robot will run out of energy. In this work, we present an approach based on Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) to enforce both energy sufficiency (assuring that no robot runs out of battery) and coordination constraints (guaranteeing mutual exclusive use of an available charging station), all in a mission agnostic fashion. Moreover, we investigate the system capacity in terms of the relation between feasible requirements of charging cycles and individual robot properties. We show simulation results, using a physics-based simulator and real robot experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.