Research On Flocking Of Multiple Robots Based On Artificial Potential Field Theory

Flocking control is a new distributed control method to simulate swarm aggregation of biology in nature. In recent years, as a hot topic in the research of network distributed intelligent system coordinated control, the flocking control attracted considerable interest at home and abroad. Among the methods on this topic, artificial potential field method (APF) is applied most widely till now. This method is the extension of the "potential field" concept in physics, which build relationships of interindividual interaction and interaction between agents and environment. The selection of model and potential function will directly impact the effectiveness and stability of the method. The research of this thesis has discussed aggregation of flocking on two aspects: with potential environmental impact or without it.The thesis briefly discussed the current study on obstacle and collision avoidance and the formation control of multi-robot, and also classified the major international academic research methods.Secondly, without consideration of environmental factors, the flocking system described by the model of agent with in artificial potential field is detailed studied and discussed. And the stability and parameters of this function are also analyzed theoretically. Then, with consideration of environmental factors, the flocking aggregation and its convergence is discussed and studied.In the end, simulation experiments has been done on research of the aggregation and formation behaviors of the swarm systems mentioned above, the results has been analyzed and the relevant problems put forward. Simulations of flocking aggregation with the four different environmental potential fields are also presented. And the simulation results have been compared and analyzed. The stability and effectiveness of the swarm systems based on the artificial potential field that researched in this thesis has been validated through experiments. The results demonstrate the reveal the validity and the availability of the flocking base on the artificial potential field.