Formation experiment with heading angle reference using sky polarization pattern at twilight

Abstract

Consistency has always been an important topic in formation cooperation research. Traditional navigation methods, such as inertial navigation and geomagnetic navigation, have the disadvantages of error accumulation and low stability, thus reducing the consistency of formation. We propose to use the skylight polarization pattern to provide heading angle reference for formation cooperation of multi-agents. The experimental results show that the polarization navigation has good stability and no error accumulation. First, we analyzed the consistency of using the skylight polarization pattern to provide a heading reference for formation experiments. Then, based on the bionic polarization navigation sensor, we measured the difference of the skylight polarization azimuth of different observers at twilight. Further, a mobile robot platform was built with its heading angle provided by a polarization navigation sensor. Finally, we present an overview of a 3-robots platform formation experiment at twilight.