Object Transportation Using a Cooperative Mobile Multi-Robot System

In this paper, we present the design and construction of a multi-robot system in order to carry out the transportation of objects. We designed, simulated, implemented and compared two intelligent controllers for two differential mobile robots used for objects transportation. The control laws used were the Parallel Distributed Controller (PCD) with two rules and a fuzzy PD (Proportional Derivative) controller with 9 rules of Takagi-Sugeno type. The experimental setup uses two differential mobile robots for transporting a rigid object; this system was modeled as one, using the instantaneous center of rotation, which allowed us to determine the necessary speed for each robot. For physical implementation were built and instrumented two mobile robots using a Gumstix computer to carry out the digital signal processing. The synchronization of two mobile robots was accomplished by monitoring the implemented algorithms. In the object transportation, the user sets the desired trajectory indicating the start and end point within the system workspace. Finally, in the results section we present a good correspondence between simulation and experimental results, and it was observed that the PDC controller has better performance to carry out the transportation of objects regardless of the initial conditions or reference system.