Intelligent Multi-Robot System for Collaborative Object Transportation Tasks in Rough Terrains

• Published in: Electronics (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 12; p. 1499
• Main Authors: Choi, Daegyun, Kim, Donghoon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 21.06.2021
• Subjects: Collaboration; Control algorithms; Fuzzy sets; Fuzzy systems; Genetic algorithms; Inference; Knowledge; Mars; Multiple robots; Neural networks; Optimal control; Optimization; Optimization techniques; Planning; Redundancy; Robots; Rough terrain; System reliability; Training; Transportation
• ISSN: 2079-9292; 2079-9292
• DOI: 10.3390/electronics10121499

Human missions on other planets require constructing outposts and infrastructures, and one may need to consider relocating such large objects according to changes in mission spots. A multi-robot system would be a good option for such a transportation task because it can carry massive objects and provide better system reliability and redundancy when compared to a single robot system. This paper proposes an intelligent and decentralized approach for the multi-robot system using a genetic fuzzy system to perform an object transportation mission that not only minimizes the total travel distance of the multi-robot system but also guarantees the stability of the whole system in a rough terrain environment. The proposed fuzzy inference system determines the multi-robot system’s input for transporting an object to a target position and is tuned in the training process by a genetic algorithm with an artificially generated structured environment employing multiple scenarios. It validates the optimality of the proposed approach by comparing the training results with the results obtained by solving the formulated optimal control problem subject to path inequality constraints. It highlights the performance of the proposed approach by applying the trained fuzzy inference systems to operate the multi-robot system in unstructured environments.