Design of Distributed Suboptimal Controller for Formation of a Group of Non-holonomic Mobile Robots in the presence of Environmental Obstacles

This paper is concerned with the controller design for formation of a group of non-holonomic mobile robots based on distributed suboptimal method in the presence of environmental obstacles. Formation control of mobile robots is one of the important aspects in group movement and cooperative behavior of multi-agent systems. Challenges and constraints on procedure mechanisms and unknown dynamic environments have made the control process of such systems more complicated. In this study, integrated leader-follower method and behavioral approach also for each of the desired behaviors including geometrical formation, trajectory tracking and obstacle collision avoidance, a cost function and a formation error dynamic equation are defined as constraints. The main goal in the present paper is to design an optimum control law for the robots applicable to the whole constraints and limits of the problem while minimizing certain criterion. The present research study also presents a stability analysis to show the closed loop system is stable and works optimally. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and efficient performance of the proposed suboptimal control law design.