Performance Comparison for Aggregation and Formation of Swarm Robots

In last few decades, the coordinated motion of swarm systems which consist of multiple autonomous robots are being intensively examined. These kinds of systems can have various functions such as the creation of the desired formation with physical or non-physical bondings, traveling to a desired position while maintaining the provided formation, and preventing collisions. Especially when looking at recent years, researchers have focused to potential function method to ensure the coordinated motion behavior of swarm systems. In this paper, two different potential function methods and controllers are selected and developed to provide collective behavior, integrated into a decentralized algorithm, implemented at the simulation level, and compared to present a useful guide for future developments on relevant topics. Potential function methods are evaluated and compared within the scope of swarm performance, which is investigated in three stages as gathering individuals, preventing the collisions, and deploying around the target. Thereafter, two different speed controllers are designed for each individual by using PID and sliding mode control methods. Moreover, evaluations of different sliding mode controllers are carried out by using combinations of 2 different sliding surfaces and 3 different switching functions, and the results are compared.