Simultaneous Trajectory Tracking and Formation Keeping for A Group of Unicycle Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper discusses the design of a control algorithm for a group of unicycles that is able to simultaneously track individual references and keep a certain formation with other unicycles. The algorithm extends the concept of individual trajectory tracking designed using dynamic feedback linearization. The extension is done by introducing coupling gains between the robots so that formation keeping can be achieved. The algorithm is validated in real-time experiments. Using a root-mean-square error-like indicator, the influence of communication topologies on the performance of the control algorithm is investigated. It shown that communication topologies and gains are the most influencing parameters.