Control and navigation in manoeuvres of formations of unmanned mobile vehicles

摘要

This paper proposes a method for controlling formations of autonomous nonholonomic vehicles in order to reach a desired target region. The approach is based on utilization of pairs of virtual leaders whose control inputs are obtained in a single optimization process using model predictive control (MPC) methodology. The obtained solution of the optimization includes both a complete plan for the formation including the overall structure of robots' workspace and control inputs for each vehicle. This ensures collision-free trajectories between the robots as well as dynamic obstacles. The proposed method enables to autonomously design arbitrary manoeuvres, like reverse driving or rotations of compact formations of car-like robots. Such a complicated behavior is illustrated by simulations and by experiments. Furthermore, the requirements that guarantee convergence of the group to the target region are formulated. (C) 2013 European Control Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.