A practical framework for uniform circle formation by multiple mobile robots

Abstract

This paper gives a software framework for positioning multiple mobile robots in a circular formation. The robots are initially arbitrarily placed on a 2D plane. The definition of the circle formed by these robots is governed by two strict rules (a) all robots should be positioned on the circle circumference (b) all robots should be uniformly placed on circle circumference. The software framework proposed in this paper utilizes two fundamental design patterns the decorator and the observer. Each robot is assigned a unique identity, which is used for conflict resolution in various situations. The model treats the environment as a first class entity providing partial support to the robots for circle formation. All robots are situated in this environment and when a robot is first introduced its position is known in terms of its x and y coordinates. The approach suggested in this paper is a leader-follower approach wherein the environment that determines the leader and then the leader determines the positions on the circle circumference for the follower robots, such that, the total distance travelled by each follower is minimum and therefore the distance travelled by all the robots to form a circle is minimized.