Local multi-robot coordination and experiments

In the paper, we studied two local multi-robot coordination problems, namely, local gathering control and formation tracking. Firstly, a new local control strategy is proposed to address the gathering problem based on routing schemes and using only bearing measurements. The interaction graph might be directed and time varying, but the convergence is still ensured. Second, a zero steady-error formation tracking control is developed by introducing an integral component, which eliminates the steady-state error when the leaders preform uniform rectilinear motions. Last, a novel IR sensor is developed to measure relative bearing angles and distances of neighboring robots and experiments are carried out based on the developed mobile platforms with IR sensors, which demonstrate not only the success of our proposed control strategies, but also the applicability of our developed mobile platforms in the field of local multi-robot coordination.