The problem of deriving navigation strategies for a fleet of autonomous mobile robots moving in formation is considered. Here each robot is represented by a particle with a spherical effective spatial domain and a specified cone of visibility. The global motion of each robot in the world space is described by the equations of motion of the robot's center of mass. First, methods for formation generation are discussed. Then, simple navigation strategies for robots moving in formation are derived. A sufficient condition for the stability of a desired formati attern for a fleet of robots each equipped with the gation strategy based on nearest neighbor tracking is developed. The dynamic behavior of robot fleets consisting of three or more ro- bots moving in formation in a plane is studied by means of computer simulation.
['Paul K. C. Wang']
Navigation Strategies For Multiple Autonomous Mobile Robots Moving In Formation