LEADER-FOLLOWER FORMATION CONTROL OF MULTI-ROBOTS BASED ON BEARING-ONLY OBSERVATIONS

摘要

This study proposes the bearing-only leader-follower formation control method and examines the nonlinear observability properties of the leader robot system. A study of the nonlinear observability properties between the leader robot and landmarks shows that the system is completely observable when the leader robot can observe four different landmarks. A subsequent study of the leader-follower formation control shows that when the leader robot system satisfies the observability condition of the nonlinear system, the system output can convey sufficient information to allow the observer to provide a correct estimate of the state. Consequently, multi-robots can quickly form and maintain a formation based on the following sufficient bearing-only information, which is that follower robots observe the leader robot. In leader-follower formation, the unscented Kalman filter is employed to estimate the states of the leaderfollower robot system. Based on this system, the input-output feedback control law is executed to control the real-time movement of the followers, which allows the leader-follower formation to be properly maintained. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate that the proposed approach can efficiently control the formation of multi-robots as desired.