Three-dimensional multi-robot control to chase a target while not being observed

Abstract

This article introduces a 3-D multi-robot chasing controller to make a team of robots get closer to a target while not being observed by the target. Assume that the target has sensors, such as radar or sonar, to observe an incoming vehicle. In the team, one robot, the leader, has a stealth capability such that it is not observable by the sensors of the target while getting closer to the target. The leader is controlled such that it chases the target while remaining at the same bearing line from the target to the leader. Considering the case in which the target can only measure optical flow, the target can hardly observe the leader’s motion. We control every robot, other than the leader, such that a detection pulse signal generated from the target’s sensor reaches no robot, since the signal is attenuated by the stealth leader. In this manner, even if multiple robots approach the target, the target observes no robot. We prove that under our 3-D multi-agent control with some condition satisfied, multiple robots can approach the target in a stealthy manner while avoiding colliding with each other. In this article, we use simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of our 3-D multi-agent controller.

Simultaneous Localization and Guidance of Two Underwater Hexapod Robots under Underwater Currents

“…In order to improve the localization of two hexapod robots, the coordinated motion of the two robots is utilized. Coordinating multiple robots can be utilized in many tasks, such as sensor network building [ 14 ], exploration [ 15 ], intruder capture [ 16 , 17 ], rendezvous [ 18 , 19 ], formation control [ 20 , 21 ], or target tracking [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Cooperative localization and control of multiple heterogeneous robots using a string formation

“…In the case where the line-of-sight between r S and g is not blocked by an obstacle, the waypoint w is set utilizing (18). This is to make r S move toward g directly.…”

“…There exist many papers on multi-robot systems [13,14]. Multi-robot control was utilized in many scenarios, such as sensor network building [15], exploration [16], intruder capture [17,18], or target tracking [19,20]. Several papers handled cooperative robot localization, based on bearing-only [21,22] or range-only sensors [23,24].…”

Constructing 3D Underwater Sensor Networks without Sensing Holes Utilizing Heterogeneous Underwater Robots

“…Sensor networks can perform various autonomous tasks in dangerous and harsh environments. In the case where each sensor has mobility, sensor network can perform environmental monitoring [1][2][3], area coverage [4][5][6][7], formation control [8][9][10], target tracking [11,12], or intruder detection [13][14][15][16].…”