Coordinated Trajectory Planning for Ground-Based Multi-Robot Systems in Exploration and Surveillance Missions

This paper presents a solution to the problem of coordinated trajectory planning for a multi-robot system used in reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The algorithm ensures collision avoidance between robotic units deployed in an obstacle environment by using a set-theoretic approach that takes into account the closed-loop dynamics of trajectory tracking errors. The proposal explicitly considers the performance of the control algorithm, possible state and actuation constraints, and external disturbances that may affect the robots’ motion capabilities. The proposed method for coordinated motion planning was tested in an numerical simulation campaign involving two remotely controlled tracked mobile robots operating in an indoor environment with obstacles.