Dynamic growth of robot formation using only local sensing and minimal communication

Abstract

This paper presents a behavior based, decentralized approach for robot formations. The formation grows from single robot to a maximum possible number of robots while in motion. The robots that are in the formation always try to keep a regular polygon and hence made a virtual circle in the end. This global behavior of forming dynamic formation is achieved using each robots local sensing and interaction. The robots are using sensors like lasers, sonar and vision for sensing distance and recognizing objects. The main objective of any robot in the group is to keep its neighbor in view by panning the camera at an angle required for making a regular polygon. The formation could be expanded with the addition of a new member while in motion and then each member re-calculates its position based on the number of robots, and the ultimate shape. We tested our algorithm on simulation and discussed the issues related to the hardware solution.