Research platforms for investigating mobile robot co-operancy

Members of the Control and Instrumentation Group at the University of Salford have embarked upon a research programme to investigate co-operant mobile automata for advanced manufacturing and material handling applications. The research team includes three industrial collaborators for whom a number of potential commercial applications exist for the programme's emergent results. Initial work has involved an examination of these application areas and has led to the identification of a 'common denominator' research demonstrator. This involves object relocation using multiple mobile robots and is ideal as a laboratory test case encapsulating the majority of problems associated with multiple co-operating devices. The paper concludes with an overview of a number of platform additions that are planned as part of the on going research into mobile robot co-operancy.<>