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Path Planning for a Formation of Mobile Robots with Split and Merge

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Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems (MESAS 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10756))

Abstract

A novel multi-robot path planning approach is presented in this paper. Based on the standard Dijkstra, the algorithm looks for the optimal paths for a formation of robots, taking into account the possibility of split and merge. The algorithm explores a graph representation of the environment, computing for each node the cost of moving a number of robots and their corresponding paths. In every node where the formation can split, all the new possible formation subdivisions are taken into account accordingly to their individual costs. In the same way, in every node where the formation can merge, the algorithm verifies whether the combination is possible and, if possible, computes the new cost. In order to manage split and merge situations, a set of constrains is applied. The proposed algorithm is thus deterministic, complete and finds an optimal solution from a source node to all other nodes in the graph. The presented solution is general enough to be incorporated into high-level tasks as well as it can benefit from state-of-the-art formation motion planning approaches, which can be used for evaluation of edges of an input graph. The presented experimental results demonstrate ability of the method to find the optimal solution for a formation of robots in environments with various complexity.

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Acknowledgment

The work of M. Estefanía Pereyra and R. Gastón Araguás has been supported by the “Multirrotores Autónomos para Aplicaciones en Ambientes Exteriores” project, U.T.N. PID UTI4534. The work of Miroslav Kulich has been supported by European Community’s HORIZON 2020 Programme under grant agreement No. 688117 “SafeLog: Safe human-robot interaction in logistic applications for highly flexible warehouses”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre in Informatics for Engineering, National Technological University, Córdoba Regional Faculty, Córdoba, Argentina

    Estefanía Pereyra & Gastón Araguás

  2. Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Miroslav Kulich

Authors
  1. Estefanía Pereyra
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  2. Gastón Araguás
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  3. Miroslav Kulich
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Estefanía Pereyra , Gastón Araguás or Miroslav Kulich .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NATO Modelling and Simulation Centre of Excellence, Rome, Italy

    Jan Mazal

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Pereyra, E., Araguás, G., Kulich, M. (2018). Path Planning for a Formation of Mobile Robots with Split and Merge. In: Mazal, J. (eds) Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems. MESAS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10756. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76072-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76072-8_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76071-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76072-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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