Formation-centric software interface

Walia, Rohan

Etd

Formation-centric software interface

Public Deposited

Multi-robot systems are often deployed as formations to accomplish tasks where a single robot has limited potential, such as collective transport, search and rescue missions and choreographed robot motions such as drone light shows. Due to the nature of these applications, retaining the formation shape plays an integral role in the success of the task. Extensive research has been conducted on how to effectively control and navigate robot formations to complete these tasks while retaining the underlying shape. However, in most cases, robots are manually assigned to create a formation shape and require specific control laws to maintain that shape throughout the task. Programming each robot manually becomes cumbersome when number of robots increases or when the formation shape changes frequently. To tackle these challenges, we develop an intuitive and concise software interface for creating and managing robot formations. As part of this interface, we introduce data types that enable users to easily define robot formations. We also introduce functions that 1) quickly assign robots to a desired formation shape, 2) change shapes of existing formations and 3) navigate a rigid formation in a mapped environment. We demonstrate the use of this interface through sample programming scripts accompanied by simulated and real robot experiments. We also describe the underlying software architecture and navigation techniques that support this work.

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