Self-stabilizing structure forming algorithms for distributed multi-robot systems

Abstract

Object transportation is an important emerging application of multirobotic swarm systems. It requires a large number of robots to be dynamically coordinated in real-time to form structures around any given rigid body that is to be lifted and transported. This paper systematically investigates the major issues that need to be addressed in methods of dynamically forming robust transportation structures. Two self-stabilizing algorithms are developed to enable a swarm of robots to form a structure to handle object transportation. Even with only a limited localized view of the environment, the algorithm enables individual robots to cooperatively form a safe structure. The stability and fault-tolerance properties of the algorithms are formally proven. The performance of the self-stabilizing algorithms, in terms of their efficiency of convergence, is evaluated via experimental studies and the results show that the system can achieve the goals in real-time. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2007.