Coordination Control of Multiple Mobile Robots

Permission is herewith granted to university to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. to my family and to Paola vi Acknowledgements After a so great experience I obviously have many people to thank... At first, I would like to deeply thank Prof. Stefano Chiaverini, my mentor, for all he has done for me in these years. His scrupulousness and thoroughness have been the best teaching I could ask and receive. I am thankful to him because he has done my research experience as good as I guess it should be. I am thankful to Prof. Gianluca Antonelli for his many suggestions and constant help during all these years. He has been an incredible support both for research and life (he has often moved from teacher to friend...). Thanks to Prof. Bruno Siciliano for introducing me to the fantastic world of Robotics. He had the merit to make follow the research career after the Laurea Degree. Thanks to Prof. Thor I. Fossen, who had been my guidance at Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures –Centre of Excellence– of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. He directed my research making me enthusiastically approaching to the control of marine systems. Moreover, I've to thank all the guys that made my staying in Norway so familiar and productive. At first, I would like to thank Fabio Celani for his many suggestions and discussions about nonlinear systems, he has been an important support during all those months. Thanks to Ivar Ihle for the interesting discussion on marine control systems. Thanks to Josè Marcal and Piotr Grymajlo both for the discussions and for the nice time spent together. Thanks to Lucia Sileo, Muk Chen Ong, Hagbart Alsos and Marco Manera to have made my staying in Norway not only a working but also an important life experience. Thanks to Alfonso Barbaro for sharing with me so many lunches speaking not only about work. I met him as a colleague but now I can definitively consider him a good friend. Apart the working advisors and colleagues, I've at first to thank all my family members. But for them I would like to spend some Italian words... Grazie per essermi stati accanto e per avermi supportato in ogni scelta. Grazie per avere creduto in me e per avermi dato la …