Distributed Formation Control for Omnidirectional Robots

This paper proposes two leader-following algorithms named D-A and D-D controllers based upon our NuBot robot team whose two main parts(omni-vision and omnidirectional motion system) together with its kinematics model are briefly described.Based on relative positioning and local communication,the proposed algorithms can implement distributed formation control of multiple robots,and can control the orientation of robots separately.Then two methods of formation distortion and formation switching are proposed for the obstacle avoidance problem of robot formation.Real robot experiments together with simulation results show that the D-A controller can switch the robot formation smoothly and the formation distortion method can avoid obstacles on the basis of changing the original formation as little as possible.