Control of a robotic swarm

Fig. Navigation control of a robotic swarm.
The leader robot is remotely controlled, and each other robot in the swarm follows its own target robot, which allows the swarm to navigate.

Fig. Cooperative transportation of an object by a robotic swarm.
Multiple robots cooperating enable the transformation of objects that cannot be transported by a single robot only.

• A robotic swarm is composed of multiple robots and can cope with certain tasks that a single robot cannot handle. The robotic swarms are expected to be applicable to main tasks such as cooperative coverage, surveillance, and transportation. 
• We have proposed control methods for robotic swarms, such as navigating the swarm to a destination and cooperatively transporting an object. Additionally, we have successfully mathematically proven the maintenance of the swarm's connectivity, stability, and feasibility of task execution.
• In particular, to prevent system breakdown even with an increasing number of robots, each robot in the swarm is controlled using locally available information. Distributed control, which achieves the system's global functions through local information, is the essence of swarm control. 

Related Publications:

• R. Maeda, T. Endo, and F. Matsuno, “Decentralized Navigation Method for Swarm Robots with Individual Loss Due to Failure”, Journal of the Franklin Institute, 360(11), pp. 7148-7179, 2023.
• K. Yamaguchi, T. Endo, and F. Matsuno, “Formation Control of Multi-Agent System Based on Higher-Order Partial Differential Equations”, IEEE Trans. on Control Systems Technology, 30(2), pp.570-582, 2022.
• R. Koike, T. Endo, and F. Matsuno, “Output-based dynamic event-triggered consensus control for linear multiagent systems”, Automatica, 133, Article 109863, 2021.
• R. Maeda, T. Endo, and F. Matsuno, “Decentralized Navigation for Heterogeneous Swarm Robots with Limited Field of View”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2(2), pp.904-911, 2017.