Self-organizing robot formations using velocity potential fields commands for material transfer

Mobile robot formations differ in accordance with the mission, environment, and robot abilities. In the case of decentralized control, the ability to achieve the shapes of these formations needs to be built in the controllers of each autonomous robot. In this paper, self-organizing formations control for material transfer is investigated, as an alternative to automatic guided vehicles. Leader–follower approach is applied for controllers design to drive the robots toward the goal. The results confirm the ability of velocity potential approach for motion control of both self-organizing formations.