Jimin Kim and Beom H. Lee
Capturing, oscillatory motion, potential field method, multi-robot
This paper proposes a capturing method that generates non-oscillatory motion for robots. The potential field method (PFM) has been frequently used in previous studies on target capturing. However, the oscillatory motions of robots around the target that constitute an inherent problem of PFM were not considered. These motions can cause dissipation of energy and system instability. To overcome this problem, we propose a modified potential field method that separates the process of capturing motion into two sequential phases: the approaching phase and enclosing phase. Robots move using the general PFM in the first phase. In the second phase, attractive potential in polar coordinates is used to eliminate oscillations while the robots are enclosing the target. To our knowledge, our research is the first study dealing with the oscillation problem of multi-robot systems. We have proved the stability of the proposed method using the LaSalle’s theorem and have validated our method by comparing it with the general PFM from the viewpoint of oscillatory motion.
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