A sequential flocking control system for multiple mobile robots

Abstract

Flocking control is a new type of control which coordinates the motions among multiple mobile robots. Current researches focus their attention on leaderless flocking controller design. We, in this paper, present the design of a sequential flocking control for multiple mobile robots, and put forward the corresponding performance evaluation method. Firstly, we briefly review the existing theories of agent-based sequential formation control; and then, transfer the agent- based flocking control strategy to the design of overall control algorithm for mobile robots, by considering the dynamics of nonholonomic mobile robot. To analyze the sequential flocking system, a flocking performance analysis method based on the least stability time(LST) is proposed. Simulations of real problems illustrate the processes of control and analysis of a multiple mobile robots sequential flocking system. The simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed procedure.