Leader-formation navigation with sensor constraints

In case of a group of robots keeping certain shape passing through a special environment, members of the robots must change their relative positions in formation in order to avoid obstacles or to resume a predetermined formation shape after passing by. Due to sensor constraints and communication barrier, the interaction topologies describing interactions among robots maybe change with time. Therefore, to realize formation under sensor constraints, we propose a local control strategy which ensures the formation converge to the predetermined formation pattern even if interaction topologies are dynamic. At last a path planning method using particle swarm optimization is adopted and a navigation strategy for multi-robot formation is proposed and implemented.