Entrapment/Escorting and Patrolling Missions in Multi-Robot Cluster Space Control

IGNACIO MAS; JOSE ACAIN; CHRISTOPHER KITTS

St. Louis, Missouri

Congreso; 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems; 2009

IEEE/Robotics Society of Japan

The tasks of entrapping/escorting and patrollingaround an autonomous target are presented making use ofthe multi-robot cluster space control approach. The clusterspace control technique promotes simplified specification andmonitoring of the motion of mobile multi-robot systems oflimited size. Previous work has established the conceptualfoundation of this approach and has experimentally verified andvalidated its use for 2-robot, 3-robot and 4-robot systems, withvarying implementations ranging from automated trajectorycontrol to human-in-the-loop piloting. In this publication, weshow that the problem of entrapping/escorting/patrolling istrivial to define and manage from a cluster space perspective.Using a 3-robot experimental testbed, results are shown for thegiven tasks. We also revise the definition of the cluster spaceframework for a three-robot formation and incorporate a robot-levelobstacle avoidance functionality.