33 accepted papers
Active 3D reconstruction of moving objects requires selecting informative viewpoints while accounting for object motion during the decision-to-execution delay. However, most next-best-view (NBV) planners assume static objects, while motion-aware active perception for moving targets typically priorit…
Control barrier functions (CBFs) are an effective model-based tool to formally certify the safety of a system. With the growing complexity of modern control problems, CBFs have received increasing attention in both optimization-based and learning-based control communities as a safety filter, owing t
Many approaches to multi-robot coordination are susceptible to failure due to communication loss and uncertainty in estimation. We present a real-time communication-free distributed navigation algorithm certified by control barrier functions, that models and controls the onboard sensing behavior to
Distributed multi-robot teams are increasingly used for optimal coverage of domains with unknown density distributions, often modeled with Gaussian Processes (GPs). However, current methods rely on data sharing, raising privacy concerns and computational issues. We propose a Federated Learning (FL)
Information exchange is crucial for optimal coordination of robots, but a link may not always be available among agents to share data. For this reason, this paper presents a decentralized solution for flocking control, leveraging state and uncertainty estimation of undetected robots. A neural networ
Multi-robot systems are gaining popularity over single-agent systems for their advantages. Although they have been studied in agriculture, search and rescue, surveillance, and environmental exploration, real-world implementation is limited due to agent coordination complexities caused by communicati
The present study addresses the challenge of effectively deploying a multi-robot team to optimally cover a domain with unknown density distribution. Specifically, we propose a distribute coverage-based control algorithm that enables a group of autonomous robots to simultaneously learn and estimate a
Efficiently navigating and manipulating objects in complex environments is a fundamental challenge in robotics. This paper presents a novel approach to streamline object-pushing tasks by integrating Behavior Trees (BT) to coordinate a control and planning framework. The proposed system optimizes the…
The topology of a robotic swarm affects the convergence speed of consensus and the mobility of the robots. In this paper, we prove the existence of a complete set of local topology manipulation operations that allow the transformation of a swarm topology. The set is complete in the sense that any ot…
In this paper we present a control barrier function-based (CBF) resilience controller that provides resilience in a multi-robot network to adversaries. Previous approaches provide resilience by virtue of specific linear combinations of multiple control constraints. These combinations can be difficul…
This paper presents a coverage based control algorithm to coordinate a group of autonomous robots. Most of the solutions presented in the literature rely on an exact Voronoi partitioning, whose computation requires complete knowledge of the environment to be covered. This can be achieved only by rob…
Passivity-based control ensures the implementation of a desired behavior in a controlled system, while preserving robust stability. In this letter, we propose a new method to guarantee passivity, based on energy-tank control and Control Barrier Functions. The goal is to accomplish a desired behavior
This work addresses the problem of transporting an object along a desired planar trajectory by pushing with mobile robots. More specifically, we concentrate on establishing optimal contacts between the object and the robots to execute the given task with minimum effort. We present a task-oriented co…
Connectivity maintenance is crucial for the real world deployment of multi-robot systems, as it ultimately allows the robots to communicate, coordinate and perform tasks in a collaborative way. A connectivity maintenance controller must keep the multi-robot system connected independently from the sy…
This paper deals with the traffic management of multiple Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in an automatic factory or warehouse. We propose innovative methods, evolved from the studies previously conducted in [1], to coordinate a fleet of AGVs in an industrial environment, and we describe the methodo…
Connectivity maintenance is an essential aspect to consider while controlling a multi-robot system. In general, a multi-robot system should be connected to obtain a certain common objective. Connectivity must be kept regardless of the control strategy or the objective of the multi-robot system. Two…
This paper proposes a technique to manipulate an object with a nonholonomic mobile robot by pushing, which is a nonprehensile manipulation motion primitive. Such a primitive involves unilateral constraints associated with the friction between the robot and the manipulated object. Violating this cons…
Multi-robot systems are able to achieve common objectives exchanging information among each other. This is possible exploiting a communication structure, usually modeled as a graph, whose topological properties (such as connectivity) are very relevant in the overall performance of the multirobot sys…
Range limitation of communication links among robots in a multi-robot network, mixed with the mobility of the robots, creates a potential threat of disconnection of the communication network due to the robots movements. Recently, local methods have been proposed for maintaining the initial graph of
Robot swarms herald the ability to solve complex tasks using a large collection of simple devices. However, engineering a robotic swarm is far from trivial, with a major hurdle being the definition of the control laws leading to the desired globally coordinated behavior. Communication is a key eleme…
Legibility can be defined as the ability of a robot to communicate its intent to the user. Legibility is relatively little investigated in multi-robot systems, but, in the literature, studies exist where the trajectory of manipulators is analyzed as a factor to improve the collaboration between robo…
In this paper we consider a multi-robot system that shares the environment with external entities, and we propose a methodology for controlling the interaction with them. In particular, we consider the problem of achieving a desired dynamic interaction model, in such a way that the multi-robot syste…
In this letter, we address the problem of teleoperating a multirobot system, and we propose a methodology for letting the user teleoperate the group of robots according to some desired dynamic behavior. Specifically, we propose a novel methodology for the teleoperation of multirobot systems, where a
This letter introduces a novel methodology for letting a user interact with a robotic system in a natural manner. The main idea is that of defining an interaction system that does not require any specific infrastructure or device but relies on commonly utilized objects while leaving the user's hands
In this paper we consider the problem of controlling the dynamic behavior of a multi-robot system while interacting with the environment. In particular, we propose a general methodology that, by means of locally scaling inter-robot coupling relationships, leads to achieving a desired interactive beh…
In physical human-robot interaction, the coexistence of robots and humans in the same workspace requires the guarantee of a stable interaction, trying to minimize the effort for the operator. To this aim, the admittance control is widely used and the appropriate selection of the its parameters is cr…
In this paper we address the problem of assigning a set of tasks to a set of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), in a conflict-free manner. Specifically, we consider a system of multiple AGVs, moving along a predefined roadmap, and utilized for transportation of goods in automated warehouses. Sequenti…
Admittance control is a widely used approach for guaranteeing a compliant behavior of the robot in physical human-robot interaction. When an admittance-controlled robot is coupled with a human, the dynamics of the human can cause deviations from the desired behavior of the robot, mainly due to a sti…
The co-ordination of multiple automated guided vehicles (AGVs) is one of the main issues to address for the implementation of an efficient autonomous warehouse. Traffic jams are highly undesirable and, therefore, the motion of the AGVs should be planned by considering the current and future state of
This paper introduces a control strategy for obtaining cooperative tracking of periodic setpoint trajectories in multi-robot systems. A heterogeneous group of robots is considered: a few independent robots are used as a control input for the system, with the aim of controlling the position of the re
In this paper we consider the problem of coordinating the motion of a group of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) utilized in industrial environments for logistics operations. In particular, we consider a hierarchical coordination strategy, where the environment is partitioned into sectors: coordinati…
Autonomous vehicles require advances sensing technologies, in order to be able to safely share the environment with human operators. Those sensing technologies are in fact necessary for identifying the presence of unforeseen objects, and measuring their position and velocity. Furthermore, classifica…
When teleoperating a multi-robot system it is useful to control the kind of behavior of the fleet depending on the environment it is moving in. In this paper, a novel bilateral control architecture for teleoperating a group of mobile robots is proposed. The user can command the robots both as a flex…