Fault tolerance for communication-based multirobot formation

Abstract

This paper investigates the ability of fault tolerance for multirobot formation, which is important for practical formation in complex environment. Our model enables mobile robots group to continue to complete given tasks by reorganizing their formation, when some members are in failure. First, to build such model, a multi-agent architecture is presented, which is implemented through communication. Second, we introduce the hierarchy graph of multirobot formation to be the theoretical foundation of the fault tolerance system. The graph analysis is suitable for general leader-follower formation format. And then, the failure detection mechanism for formation is discussed. Finally, integrated fault tolerance algorithm is investigated, including supplement for faulty robots and formation reconfiguration. The improved agent architecture adding the fault tolerance module is also presented. The experiments on real multiple mobile robots demonstrate our design is feasible.