Decentralized control of mobile robotic sensors: Vicsek's model revisited

Abstract

We address the discrete time control of a team of mobile robots reaching a consensus in terms of the same heading angle. In fact, our discrete time control strategy is inspired from Vicsek's model for decentralized coordination of a team of agents. Some researchers have already shown appearance of a cyclic behaviour in Vicsek's model. The existence of a cyclic behaviour prevents the mobile robots to reach a constant heading angle. We define simple rules for the quantized control of mobile robots to reach a constant heading. The simulation study has revealed that a cyclic behaviour of discrete time Vicsek's model can be avoided by the use of an alternate biased strategy bringing the calculated heading angle of a mobile robot to a quantized level. We update the discrete time individual heading angle of a mobile robot based on the self biased or neighbour biased strategy. A number of numerical simulations have been performed to check the avoidance of a cyclic behaviour in the discrete time swarm of mobile robots meeting constraints.