Application of bat algorithm based time optimal control in multi-robots formation reconfiguration

This paper proposes a Bat Algorithm (BA) based Control Parameterization and Time Discretization (BA-CPTD) method to acquire time optimal control law for formation reconfiguration of multi-robots system. In this method, the problem of seeking for time optimal control law is converted into a parameter optimization problem by control parameterization and time discretization, so that the control law can be derived with BA. The actual state of a multi-robots system is then introduced as feedback information to eliminate formation error. This method can cope with the situations where the accurate mathematical model of a system is unavailable or the disturbance from the environment exists. Field experiments have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method and shown that formation converges faster than some existing methods. Further experiment results illustrate that the time optimal control law is able to provide smooth control input for robots to follow, so that the desired formation can be attained rapidly with minor formation error. The formation error will finally be eliminated by using actual state as feedback.