Vision-based triangular formation control of mobile robots

In this paper, we study a vision-based triangular formation control problem for a group of three mobile robots. The control objective is to enable the robots to maintain a desired triangular formation via local relative measurements. Cameras mounted on the robots are employed to make relative measurements among the robots including distances and bearing angles. The relative measurements made by each individual robot are integrated via an information exchange method to obtain a complete description of the formation. The group dynamics governing the evolution of the robot states are deduced to guide the controller design. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed formation control scheme.