Control of swarms based on Hydrodynamic models

Author

Pimenta, Luciano C A ; Michael, Nathan ; Mesquita, Renato C. ; Pereira, Guilherme A S ; Kumar, Vijay

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte

fYear

2008

fDate

19-23 May 2008

Firstpage

1948

Lastpage

1953

Abstract

We address the problem of pattern generation in obstacle-filled environments by a swarm of mobile robots. Decentralized controllers are devised by using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The swarm is modelled as an incompressible fluid subjected to external forces. Actual robot issues such as finite size and nonholonomic constraints are also addressed. Collision avoidance guarantees are discussed. Finally, in the absence of obstacles, we prove for the first time stability and convergence of controllers based on the SPH.

Keywords

collision avoidance; decentralised control; hydrodynamics; mobile robots; robot dynamics; stability; collision avoidance; decentralized controller; incompressible fluid model; obstacle-filled environment; pattern generation problem; smoothed particle hydrodynamics model; swarm mobile robot control; time stability; Automatic generation control; Convergence; Fluid dynamics; Fluid flow control; Hydrodynamics; Lagrangian functions; Robot control; Robotics and automation; Shape control; Stability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Automation, 2008. ICRA 2008. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Pasadena, CA

ISSN

1050-4729

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1646-2

Electronic_ISBN

1050-4729

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROBOT.2008.4543492

Filename

4543492