Method of the Dynamic Reconfiguration of a Group Control System for Mobile Robots

This paper considers the problem of dynamic reconfiguration of a group control system (GCS) for mobile robots operating in a non-deterministic changing environment. Changes in the environment or in the group task specification require high adaptability of GCS. In order to improve the GCS adaptability, dynamic reconfiguration is used. The paper contains a review of existing models and design methodologies for dynamically reconfigurable control systems. The review shows that the existing approaches do not fully provide the required adaptability of GCS. We analyze features of GCS and reconfigurable computing system (RCS) and propose a dynamic reconfiguration method based on RCS design approaches. The paper describes the dynamic reconfiguration procedure for building GCS parts directly when a group of mobile robots performs a mission in specific conditions. A group action example (reaching the objective) demonstrates the application of the proposed method.