GMF: Gravitational Mass-Force Framework for Parametric Multi-Level Coordination in Multi-Robot and Swarm Robotic Systems

Abstract

Distributed multi-robot coordination is critical to achieving reliable robotic missions that exploit the collective capability of swarm robots. In particular, the consensus and formation control problems have been extensively studied, resulting in distributed controllers that enable robots to rely only on information from themselves and their immediate neighbors. However, these algorithms are usually designed for specific objectives (e.g., cooperative object transportation, environmental coverage, etc.), requiring the controllers to be re-designed for domain variations. Therefore, we propose a new parametric framework inspired by gravitational fields that allow simultaneous coordination of robots at multiple levels, enabling generalization and domain adaptation. Our approach is built on top of a connectivity-preserving formation controller, with need-based and task-based ad hoc coordination at private, local, and global layers of a swarm robot team. We demonstrate the remarkable potential of our framework through extensive simulations and real-world swarm robot experiments in three representative multi-robot tasks involving tight coordination: 1) robot-initiated rendezvous at different coordination layers, 2) coordinated boundary tracking and coverage of environmental processes, and 3) accommodating task executions and motion control while satisfying the coordination laws.