STATE Distributed algorithm for uniform circle formation by multiple mobile robots

Abstract

Multi-robot pattern formation has a wide range of applications, such as inspection of hazardous regions, parallel and simultaneous transportation of load, area exploration, etc. This problem has been investigated both from the scientific and engineering perspectives. There is a whole body of experimental work on robot formations, and at the same, there is no dearth of theoretical research addressing the same problem. Several assumptions considered in these theoretical studies are overly simplified with an understanding that they will somehow be reasonably approximated. Although these theoretical research works are sound and complete, they do not show how an actual implementation compares with the idealized scenario. A new practical model is suggested in this paper for geometric pattern formation. This model uses approximate solutions to some of the assumptions considered in theoretical research works. A novel algorithm, STATE, is proposed and is shown to perform better than Défago and Konagaya’s algorithm for uniform circle formation. Both the algorithms are implemented on a real multi-robot test bed. A new framework for inter-robot communication is developed. It supports seamless asynchronous and non-blocking robot-to-computer, and robot-to-robot communication.