Decentralized identification and control of networks of coupled mobile platforms through adaptive synchronization of chaos
This addresses the challenge of decentralized identification and control for mobile robotic networks in dynamic, uncertain environments, representing an incremental advancement in applying chaos synchronization to robotics.
The paper tackles the problem of detecting changes in the topology of a mobile robotic network using adaptive synchronization of chaos, showing that synchronization can be achieved and topology changes detected, with potential application to formation control in uncertain environments.
In this paper we propose an application of adaptive synchronization of chaos to detect changes in the topology of a mobile robotic network. We assume that the network may evolve in time due to the relative motion of the mobile robots and due to unknown environmental conditions, such as the presence of obstacles in the environment. We consider that each robotic agent is equipped with a chaotic oscillator whose state is propagated to the other robots through wireless communication, with the goal of synchronizing the oscillators. We introduce an adaptive strategy that each agent independently implements to: (i) estimate the net coupling of all the oscillators in its neighborhood and (ii) synchronize the state of the oscillators onto the same time evolution. We show that by using this strategy, synchronization can be attained and changes in the network topology can be detected. We go one step forward and consider the possibility of using this information to control the mobile network. We show the potential applicability of our technique to the problem of maintaining a formation between a set of mobile platforms, which operate in an inhomogeneous and uncertain environment. We discuss the importance of using chaotic oscillators and validate our methodology by numerical simulations.