Title: Fault-tolerant multi-agent scheme for leader/follower formation control of homogeneous mobile robot team

Authors: Abdelfetah Hentout; Abderraouf Maoudj; Mohamed Ouahal; Abdennour Gasmi

Addresses: Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées (CDTA), Division Productique et Robotique (DPR), BP 17 Baba Hassen, Algiers 16303, Algeria ' Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées (CDTA), Division Productique et Robotique (DPR), BP 17 Baba Hassen, Algiers 16303, Algeria ' Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées (CDTA), Division Productique et Robotique (DPR), BP 17 Baba Hassen, Algiers 16303, Algeria; Département d' Informatique, Université Saad Dahleb de Blida (USDB), BP 270, Route de Soumaa, Blida 09100, Algeria ' Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées (CDTA), Division Productique et Robotique (DPR), BP 17 Baba Hassen, Algiers 16303, Algeria; Département d' Informatique, Université Saad Dahleb de Blida (USDB), BP 270, Route de Soumaa, Blida 09100, Algeria

Abstract: This paper deals with fault-tolerance and formation control problems for homogeneous mobile robots under leader/follower failures by using the multi-agent paradigm. These issues are addressed by a cooperative approach supported by two kinds of agents: 1) robot agents (classified into a leader and a set of followers depending on their objective function), assigned to robots for collecting information, making decisions and transferring them to physical robots for execution; 2) supervisory agent (an interface between the control system and the team), synchronises and coordinates tasks of the other agents. These agents interact by a negotiation protocol to satisfy their objectives: 1) preserve predefined leader/follower formation; 2) conserve robots order inside the formation; 3) manage dynamic disturbance events (e.g., unexpected breakdown, integration of new robots). To validate this scheme and evaluate its performances, different simulations are examined by using ten robots evolving inside a grid environment cluttered with static obstacles with/without failures.

Keywords: multi-agent control scheme; leader/follower line formation; fault-tolerance; homogeneous robot team.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCC.2019.098977

International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications, 2019 Vol.10 No.2, pp.95 - 125

Received: 30 Sep 2017
Accepted: 19 Oct 2018
Published online: 10 Apr 2019 *

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