Formation control and obstacle avoidance for multiple mobile robots

This paper considers the problem of formation control and obstacle avoidance for a group of nonholonomic mobile robots. On the basis of suboptimal model predictive control, two control algorithms are proposed. Both algorithms are formulated such that they solve as solving the optimal control problems in which the cost functions are coupled with the dynamics of each interacting robot. A potential function is used to define the terminal state penalty term, and a corresponding terminal state region is added to the optimization constraints. Moreover, the main issues inclusive of stability and safety are also discussed. Simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed control strategies.