Experimental verification of a multi-robot distributed control algorithm with containment and group dispersion behaviors

In this work, we develop and implement a multi-robot control platform and use it to validate the effectiveness of a distributed control algorithm with containment and group dispersion behaviors presented in one of our recent papers. We first present a distributed control algorithm adapted for a group of agents represented by double integrator dynamics that drives these agents, designated as “followers,” close the convex hull spanned by another group of agents, designated as “leaders,” while guaranteeing collision avoidance during the movement. We then develop a multi-robot experimental platform to verify these theoretical results. In the development of this experimental platform, a high-level computer is used for decision making based on the local information received by the sonar units, and low-level motion microcontrollers are used to control the wheeled mobile robots. Experimental results on the multi-robot platform are provided to show that the follower robots can indeed be successfully driven close to the containment of the leader robots while maintaining a minimum distance among all robots.