Motion Planning for Quadrupled Teams: An Experimental Evaluation Using a Dynamic Fluid Flow Model

This paper applies the principles of fluid mechan-ics to develop a new method for motion planning in contented environments where multiple groups of agents want to reach their target while guaranteeing inter-agent collision avoidance. Assuming <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$M$</tex> groups of agents exist in the same motion space, we propose a time-varying ideal fluid flow model to safely plan the desired coordination of each group in the presence of other groups that are considered singularity points in the fluid flow field. To ensure that each group reaches its target destination, we propose to define the desired trajectory of each group along the streamlines of the fluid field but continuously direct the streamlines toward the target destination. The proposed solution, is experimentally evaluated by using quadruped robots in an indoor robotic facility.