Behavior-based formation control for multirobot teams

TLDR

The study presents and evaluates new reactive behaviors that enable formations in multirobot teams. The behaviors are integrated with navigational functions to allow a robotic team to reach goals, avoid hazards, and maintain formation, and are implemented in simulation, laboratory robots, and DARPA HMMWV‑based unmanned ground vehicles. Integration with AuRA and UGV Demo II shows that different formations are valuable in autonomous, human‑led, and communication‑restricted scenarios, performing well across various task environments.

Abstract

New reactive behaviors that implement formations in multirobot teams are presented and evaluated. The formation behaviors are integrated with other navigational behaviors to enable a robotic team to reach navigational goals, avoid hazards and simultaneously remain in formation. The behaviors are implemented in simulation, on robots in the laboratory and aboard DARPA's HMMWV-based unmanned ground vehicles. The technique has been integrated with the autonomous robot architecture (AuRA) and the UGV Demo II architecture. The results demonstrate the value of various types of formations in autonomous, human-led and communications-restricted applications, and their appropriateness in different types of task environments.