Formation Types of Multiple Steerable 1-Trailer Mobile Robots Via Split-Rejoin Maneuvers

This paper considers the design of a motion planner that governs the motion of a flock of steerable 1-trailer nonholonomic robots, wherein each robot forms a three axle system. A set of artificial potential field functions is proposed for split/rejoin maneuvers of the flock within a constrained environment via a Lyapunov-based control scheme, essentially an artificial potential fields method, for the avoidance of obstacles and attraction to designated targets. The control scheme utilizes the artificial potential fields, within a leader-follower strategy, to accomplish desired formations and reformations of the flock. The effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear acceleration control laws is demonstrated through computer simulations of different formation shapes, namely, arrowhead, platoon, line, and column formations