Collaborative nonlinear model-predictive collision avoidance and path following of mobile robots

Abstract

This study is based on new requirements of an advance microproduction system in nearly future where all necessary production and assembly processes are connected in a very flexible way using autonomous mobile transport and handling robots. One main problem herein is the coordinated navigation of the multi-robot system during their transportation tasks. The robots have to follow previously planned paths while avoiding collisions with other robots and also human workers moving around. Moreover, problem-specific constraints for a defined microproduction system like limitations of the velocity and accelerations of the robots have to be fulfilled. This study focuses on a collaborative, model-predictive control approach to solve the collision avoidance and path following problem of the mobile robots in parallel. In addition, the model-predictive approach also offers the possibility to guarantee the fulfillment of the velocity and acceleration constraints of the robots.