Real-time Multi-robot Formation Planning in Complex Indoor Environments Consisting of Narrow Passages
Younghun Lee, Seongkeun Park, Seung‐Mok Lee · Journal of Institute of Control Robotics and Systems · 2025
This paper proposes a multi-robot formation planning algorithm designed for indoor environments with narrow passages. In such settings, multi-robot systems must navigate while avoiding collisions with walls and other obstacles. Effective navigation in complex indoor environments requires the real-time planning of a sequence of formation patterns that adapt to environmental constraints. The proposed real-time formation planning algorithm selects collision-free formations from a set of predefined patterns using a 2D occupancy grid map. Model predictive control (MPC) is employed to ensure that each robot avoids both static obstacles and neighboring robots while maintaining the designated formation during navigation. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a simulation environment was developed using the 3D robot simulator Gazebo in conjunction with the robot operating system (ROS). Simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm effectively and dynamically selects appropriate formation patterns in real- time, enabling safe and efficient navigation through complex indoor environments with narrow passages.