Formation Maintenance for Autonomous Robots by Steering Behavior Parameterization

Most often, autonomous robots maintain group formations by using global information such as the position of the group leader or even the position of all robots inside the formation. Alternative approaches to autonomous robot formations have considered local information, which is more realistic but presents some drawbacks such as troop deformation. In this paper we perform a step forward in local information usage for formation maintenance by analyzing a parameterization of different basic behaviors. Formation maintenance emerges from the combination of these simple behaviors, and its overall accuracy is empirically optimized by tuning behavior parameters. In particular, we study and characterize three different formations: queue or column (as for ants), inverted V or wedge (as for birds or planes) and rectangle (for “manipulus” antique roman troop formations). Key-words: Autonomous robotics, behavior-based robots, simulation.