Vision-based path coordination for multiple mobile robots with four steering wheels using an overhead camera

In this paper, we extend our previous work to introduce a vision-based path coordination method for multiple mobile robots with four steering wheels to avoid mutual collisions, so that the generated paths are always in the visibility range of the overhead camera. The proposed algorithm generates the synchronized trajectories for all wheels belonging to each mobile robot, with respect to its inertial-frame, relying on only one calibrated camera. These synchronized trajectories reduce the complexity of the robot kinematic model to plan maximum allowable bounded driving and steering velocities for each mobile robot. The main contribution of the proposed method is coordinating the trajectories for multiple mobile robots to avoid intersection boundaries that are obtained by generated geometrical traces in real world coordinates. Our experimental results are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method for the path coordination of multiple mobile robots with four steering wheels to avoid mutual collision.