Robust Control of Coupled Multirobot Systems under Signal Temporal Logic Specifications with Collision Avoidance

Abstract: Multi-agent systems have been gaining attention among robotics researchersdue to their capabilities, in terms of which they surpass individualrobots. Such systems, however, entail an increase in complexity,especially to the task planning problem. Therefore, a more sophisticatedplanning approach is needed, one that is able to resolve conflictsbetween local tasks, in particular. These conflicts arise from couplingsbetween robots expressed in their task specifications.A computationally inexpensive collaborative control scheme is implementedin a setup consisting of three omni-directional robots. Therobots execute tasks encoded in Signal Temporal Logic, using PrescribedPerformance Control. They are guaranteed to satisfy the specificationsor, if that is not possible, reach a least violating solution, evenin the face of a task conflict. What is more, collision-free trajectoriesare produced.A series of simulations and experiments is carried out to verify theutility of the method. The approach is shown to be effective despiterestrictive assumptions imposed on the system. Finally, directions forfuture work, that would allow the method to perform well in moredemanding experimental scenarios, are suggested.