Semi-centralized control for multi-robot formation and theoretical lower bound
This work addresses formation control for multi-robot systems in civilian and military applications, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing methods like the Hungarian algorithm and theoretical analysis.
The paper tackles the problem of minimizing total moving distance for multi-robot formation control by formulating an optimization problem solved with the Hungarian method, and it derives a theoretical lower bound for formation bias based on information theory to analyze deviation from ideal formations.
Multi-robot formation control enables robots to cooperate as a working group in completing complex tasks, which has been widely used in both civilian and military scenarios. Before moving to reach a given formation, each robot should choose a position from the formation so that the whole system cost is minimized. To solve the problem, we formulate an optimization problem in terms of the total moving distance and give a solution by the Hungarian method. To analyze the deviation of the achieved formation from the ideal one, we obtain the lower bound of formation bias with respect to system's parameters based on notions in information theory. As an extension, we discuss methods of transformation between different formations. Some theoretical results are obtained to give a guidance of the system design.