Multi-robot coordination methodology in congested systems with bottlenecks

This paper describes a novel coordination methodology for autonomous mobile robots in congested systems with bottlenecks. This methodology consists of two approaches. 1) A previous robot behavior control technique that utilizes external interaction force among robots is improved. This enables robots to reduce velocity not only for the jam preceding them, but also for the decelerating robot immediately in front. 2) An environmental rule in connection with the interaction force is designed and provided on congested lanes where robots move slowly. Thus, amplified interaction force affects the robots, and they move more slowly in the congested lanes. The improved interaction force and environmental rule are implemented in simulation experiments and compared to the previous robot behavior control technique and an adaptive cruise control (ACC) that has been proposed for autonomous vehicles. The interaction force and environmental rule can be implemented in the ACC; then, the resulting ACC improvement is discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of the usage of the improved interaction force and environmental rule for multi-robot coordination in congested systems with bottlenecks is shown.