Multi-robot path following with visual connectivity

Abstract

We consider a group of N robots moving through an obstacle field, where only robots that have a clear line of sight can communicate. When passing the obstacles, the group must coordinate its motion to remain connected. We propose using the path-velocity decomposition: Given obstacle-free paths that fulfill a higher-level goal, we propose a method to coordinate the robot motions along the paths so visual connectivity is maintained. The problem is shown to be equivalent to finding a path through an N-dimensional configuration space, avoiding unconnected configurations. We solve this problem with a rapidly exploring random tree algorithm and demonstrate by simulations how the solution time varies with the obstacle density.