Formation Control of a Cooperative Transportation System with Multiple Robots Using a State Machine with an Integrated Sensing System with an Omnidirectional Camera and LiDARs

In cooperative transportation, multiple robots share work that is difficult to perform using a single robot. This transformation enables a flexible combination of robots to transport objects, enabling efficient operation according to the situation. In recent years, the cooperative transportation of objects has been studied using formation-change algorithms with reinforcement learning. Although individual tasks, such as transport or formation change, have been studied, the coordination of all tasks in cooperative transport and control has not been discussed. In this paper, a formation-control system using a state machine is proposed for transportation tasks in a complex environment. First, reinforcement learning algorithms specialized for multiple agents were used to change the formation. As precise environmental sensing in the vicinity of a formation is required for cooperative transport, an integrated sensing system that shares omnidirectional camera and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor information with all the transport robots was constructed. Next, the formation was controlled using a state machine with an integrated virtual LiDAR sensor. Finally, two scenarios with multiple robots were demonstrated to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system.