A Geometric Characterization of Leader-Follower Formation Control

— The paper focuses on leader-follower formations of nonholonomic mobile robots. A formation control alternative to those existing in the literature is introduced. We show that the geometry of the formation imposes a bound on the maximum admissible curvature of leader trajectory. An peculiar feature of the proposed strategy is that the followers position is not rigidly fixed with respect to the leader reference frame but varies in suitable cones centered in the leader reference frame. Our approach also applies to hierarchical multirobot formations described by rooted tree graphs. Simulation experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Luca Consolini, Fabio Morbidi, Domenico Prattichizzo, Mario Tosques
• Keywords: Formation Control Alternative, ICRA 2007, Leader Reference Frame, Maximum Admissible Curvature, Robotics