Occlusion-Based Cooperative Transport with a Swarm of Miniature Mobile Robots
Occlusion-Based Cooperative Transport with a Swarm of Miniature Mobile Robots
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DOI：
10.1109/tro.2015.2400731
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发表时间：
2015-04-01
影响因子：
7.8
通讯作者：
Gross, Roderich
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chen, Jianing;Gauci, Melvin;Gross, Roderich
本文提出了一种使用大量比物体小得多的移动机器人将大型物体运输到目标的策略。机器人仅将物体推到目标的直接视线被物体遮挡的位置。该策略是完全去中心化的，既不需要显式的沟通，也不需要特定的操纵机制。我们证明它可以在平面环境中传输任何凸面物体。我们在 e-puck 机器人平台上实施了这一策略，并用一组 20 个 e-puck 运输三个不同形状的物体进行了系统实验。在 45 次试验中，有 43 次成功地将物体运送到目标。当使用由人类遥控操作的移动目标时，可以在有障碍物的环境中导航该物体。我们还使用基于物理的计算机模拟在 3D 环境中测试了该策略。由于其简单性，该运输策略特别适合在微型机器人系统上实施。
This paper proposes a strategy for transporting a large object to a goal using a large number of mobile robots that are significantly smaller than the object. The robots only push the object at positions where the direct line of sight to the goal is occluded by the object. This strategy is fully decentralized and requires neither explicit communication nor specific manipulation mechanisms. We prove that it can transport any convex object in a planar environment. We implement this strategy on the e-puck robotic platform and present systematic experiments with a group of 20 e-pucks transporting three objects of different shapes. The objects were successfully transported to the goal in 43 out of 45 trials. When using a mobile goal, teleoperated by a human, the object could be navigated through an environment with obstacles. We also tested the strategy in a 3-D environment using physics-based computer simulation. Due to its simplicity, the transport strategy is particularly suited for implementation on microscale robotic systems.