Probabilistic Communication Based Potential Force for Robot Formations: A Practical Approach

We introduce a new method of artificial potential forces based on probabilistic communication, called 'Probabilistic Communication based Potential Forces' - PCPF. The potential forces provides a locally distributed control for a formation of a large volume of self-regulated mobile robots. While models of sensing and communication so fare mostly have been with simple assumptions that are far away from the physical properties of sensors and communication mechanisms, the method here is realistic because both attractive and repulsive forces are only based on probability of communication which are empirically measured and approximately estimated between robots. The method is demonstrated through non-trivial examples of robot formation and formation transformation. Analysis is provided to facilitate understanding of the elements of the probabilistic method.