Abstract—This paper presents a cooperative object transportation technique exploiting surrounding obstacles. In previous studies, obstacles have been considered only an impediment during the transportation process. Robots should explore a detour route when they encounter obstacles. In some cases, however, obstacles are not merely obstructions, but they can help generate a transport path to a goal. In this paper, robots generate an enclosing object transportation formation using surrounding obstacles. The surrounding obstacles replace the particular role of robots, especially path guidance function. The enclosing formation consists of robots and obstacles and continuously changes its shape to transport objects to a goal. In addition, each robot can decide its own action with a limited sensing range, and robots can transport multiple objects through narrow paths between obstacles. Simulation and practical experiments are presented to verify the proposed method.

Index Terms—decentralized control, multi-robot, object transportation, robot formation, virtual electric dipole field

Cite: Gyuho Eoh, "A Decentralized Multi-Robot Object Transportation Exploiting Surrounding Obstacles," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 8-14, January 2022. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.11.1.8-14

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