Distributed coordination theory for robot teams (Q2113286)

The present book develops control algorithms to coordinate the motion of autonomous teams of robots in order to achieve some desired collective goal. It consists of 10 chapters and the appendix, namely: 1. Introduction, 2. Robot Models, 3. Coordination Problems, 4. Control Primitives, 5. Rendezvous of Flying Robots, 6. Rendezvous of Unicycles, 7. Unicycle Formations Coming to Rest, 8. Unicycle Formations with Parallel and Circular Motions, 9. Unicycle Formation Simulation Trials, 10. Bibliographical Notes, and Appendix A: Notions of Stability Theory, Appendix B: Notions of Graph Theory. At the beginning, the notion of distributed coordination in the field of robotics is introduced in the book. Then models of kinematic unicycles and flying robots are presented and a precise definition of local and distributed feedback is given. The coordination problems that are the object of the book are described. Whether flying robots or unicycles are deployed, the unifying feature considered in the book is that all coordination problems are cast in terms of stabilization of suitable subsets of the collective state space of the robots. Elementary control functions which construct the control solutions for the problems introduced in Chapter 3. are considered in Chapter 4. For kinematic unicycles, controllers for single integrators in R2 and rotational integrators in SO(2) are required to develop control solutions. For flying robots, the control solutions are obtained using consensus controllers for double integrators in R3 and rotating rigid bodies in SO(3). The book provides a solid theoretical background in basic stability, graph theory and control primitives. The book discusses the algorithmic solutions for numerous distributed control problems, focusing primarily on flying robotics and kinematic unicycles. Finally, elements of a future research are suggested and discussed. The book is intended for students and scientists and should be of interest to practicing and research engineers as well as Ph.D. students in the field of motion control of robots and robot teams.