Multi agent based optimal arrest and guidance of a prismatic 2D object avoiding obstacles

A GA based method is proposed to obtain the optimal capture points for constraining a moving prismatic 2D object using multi agents and then transporting it to a desired goal point. Frictionless point contact at the mobile robot and object interface is assumed and form closure is obtained using accessibility angle. An objective function is optimized that minimizes the contact forces and the number of robots required for form closure. The robots first avoid obstacles and converge on the C- space surrounding the object. After the object is captured the mobile robots reorient themselves optimally on two of the edges that have the least opposite angles with the direction of desired motion. Projective path planning is then used to check for obstacles in between the object and its goal point. Collision free path to the goal points is determined in parts and the robots push the object along the sequence of paths after appropriate reorientation around the object. Simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. The main contributions of the proposed method as compared to earlier research are that resources are conserved because an optimal number of agents are used, resulting in lower energy consumption and minimum networking problems.