Implementation of robot formation control and navigation using real-time panel method

Abstract

In this paper, potential flow calculations for incompressible inviscid flows are used to develop a collision free navigation algorithm for a robot swarm. Robots are equiped with laser scanners which are used to detect the obstacles in the environment. Then, a real-time panel method is used to calculate the streamlines of the potential flow around the complex shaped rigid objects, providing the robots with safe trajectories to the target. The swarm of robots is also forced to keep a desired formation during navigation using potential functions. Potential flow algorithms provide navigation with smooth paths to the target. The algorithm can be used in dynamic environments in real-time as the changes in the medium are detected.