Navigated Locomotion and Controllable Splitting of a Microswarm in a Complex Environment

Abstract

Reconfigurable microswarms have received extensive attention recently. In this work, we propose a control strategy for a ribbon-like swarm to perform navigated locomotion with a stable pattern, and perform controllable splitting into double subswarms to reach two targets simultaneously. Two different behaviors of the ribbon-like swarm are firstly investigated, i.e., locomotion with a stable pattern, and controllable splitting. The two behaviors of the ribbon-like swarm are realized based on different aspect ratio of the swarm. Subsequently, we propose a morphology controller to keep the aspect ratio of the swarm within a desired range. The morphology controller consists of a feedforward controller and a PD controller. The feedforward controller containing a fitted model, and a fuzzy logic controller for online compensation of the model error. The control strategy combining the morphology planning, morphology controller, path planning, and motion controller is developed. Using the proposed control strategy, the ribbon-like swarm can be navigated to follow a desired path with a stable pattern while avoiding obstacles, and finally perform controllable splitting into double subswarms to reach two predefined targets simultaneously.