Automatic generation of persistent formations for multi-agent networks under range constraints
Brian Smith, Magnus Egerstedt, Ayanna Howard · International Conference on Robot Communication and Coordination · 2007
We present graph-based methods for determining if a mobile robot network with a defined sensor and communication range can persistently achieve a specified formation, which implies that the formation, once achieved, will be preserved by the direct maintenance of a subset of inter-agent distances. Here, formations are defined by a set of points whose inter-point distances correspond to desired inter-agent distances. Further, we provide graph operations to describe agent interactions that implement a given formation, as well as an algorithm that, given a persistent formation, automatically generates a sequence of such operations.