This paper proposes a constructive control approach, dynamic state feedback formation control, for achieving the realization of the Multi-Robot Formation System (MRFS) with respect to the problem of dilation of a formation shape and stabilization issue in nonholonomic system simultaneously. Combining with theoretical analysis, the proposed control approach has been successfully to deal with the following design issues: one is to elude the switch control of the nonholonomic MRFS for preventing the divergence of the MRFS; another one is to stabilize the MRFS which is allowed to change the interconnection structure dynamically.

This paper proposes a navigation algorithm that considers the states of humans and other robots in order to achieve harmonious coexistence between robots and humans. When navigating through humans and robots with different functions, a robot should not only pay attention to obstacle avoidance and goal seeking, it should also take care of whether it interferes with other people or robots. To deal with this problem, we propose several harmonious rules, which guarantee a safe and smooth navigation in multi-human and multi-robot (MHMR) environment. Based on those rules, a practical navigation method-human- centered sensitive navigation (HCSN)-is proposed. HCSN considers the fact that both humans and robots have sensitive zones depending on their security regions or on psychological feeling of people. We model these zones as various sensitive fields with priorities, whereby robots tend to yield socially acceptable movements.

A general control framework for a formation system composed of a team of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) considering the formation dynamics under static connection structure but subject to dynamic connection stability is proposed in this paper. Hence, a rigorous formation theory is obtained essentially based on the differential structure of the formation system. With this result, a case design using a Lyapunov based control complying with the proposed formation theory is provided to demonstrate the capability and feasibility of the proposed framework. Finally, the wander-mode simulation with three WMRs is conducted while the formation configuration may be changing on-line. It is believed that the present results can be further extended to many applications involving the nonlinear multi-agent system.

In this paper, a novel design and implementation of a hybrid system of the multi-agent is proposed. First of all, a hybrid system is established to characterize different behaviours of an agent. From the well designed feedback linearization control law, the autonomous agent which is composed by wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM) switches well-depicted behaviours such as obstacle avoid, target approach, cruise, grasp etc. from the feedback signals. Next, a two-level control architecture is devised for the WMM system, where the first level mainly handles sensor feedback subject to sensor fusion, whereas the second level is responsible for providing a well performed supervisory control that can manipulate all available surrounding resources to successfully accomplish the aforementioned mission. An actual WMM is developed, named The Treasure Hunter (TTH), which is able to hunt treasures in an unknown environment whereby the effectiveness of the proposed approach is satisfactorily demonstrated

This paper addresses the problem of distributed motion control of highly structured formations of nonholonomic multi-agent robotic systems. For concentrating on the multi-agent formation problem, a local stable feedback control laws based on relative distance and angular and bearing measurements are used. There are topological obstructions to globally stable system operation for such laws, but by appropriately switching among them, it is possible to stably control a rich class of formation motions. In this paper, the modeling and stability analysis is obtained to the proposed nonholonomic multi-agent formation systems. Beyond the modeling, a leader's control configuration is obtained from the cost function of the MFCS with local control of followers. Hence, we start with the fundamental definitions of a noholonomic WMR for looking for the system properties. After extending to the problem of multi-agent formation, an innovative analysis of the platform is provided for the further study on multi-agent cooperation/coordination problem.

This paper develops methodologies and technologies for ultrasonic self-localization of an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) using a fuzzy adaptive extended information filtering scheme. A novel ultrasonic localization system consisting of two ultrasonic transmitters and three receivers, is presented to estimate both the static and dynamic position and orientation of the AMR. A fuzzy adaptive extended information filter (FAEIF) is presented to improve estimation accuracy and robustness for the proposed localization system, while the system lacks of sufficient information of complete models of the process and measurement noise varies with time. A static pose estimation utilizing the averaging approach is investigated as well. Six time-of-flight ultrasonic measurements together with the vehicle's dead-reckoned location information are merged to update the vehicle's dead-reckoned location information are merged to update the vehicle's pose by utilizing FAEIF sensor fusion algorithm. The proposed algorithm were implemented using an industrial personal computer with a computation speed of 800 MHz, and standard C++ programming techniques. The system prototype together with computer simulations and experimental results has been used to confirm that the system not only provides precise estimation of both the static and dynamic pose of the AMR, but also provides a simpler and more economical structure for navigation use and installation/calibration.