Aquatic self-reconfigurable robots must assemble into desired shapes while ensuring safe interactions among multiple agents. This paper proposes a hybrid framework that combines distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC) with Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) for multi-agent shape formation and reconfiguration. Given a desired shape and target assignment, a distributed MPC scheme, solved via the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), computes coordinated trajectories through local optimization and information exchange. To ensure safety in real time, distributed CBF-based filters are applied to enforce inter-agent collision avoidance. The proposed approach leverages the predictive capabilities of MPC to mitigate local minima, while CBFs provide formal safety guarantees despite the nonconvexity of the underlying optimization problem. Simulation results with up to 25 agents and experimental validation with four physical robots demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the framework.
Accurately steering a robot to a target configuration is fundamental in engineering, yet remains challenging for nonholonomic mobile robots. Vector fields (VFs) provide a natural framework by specifying desired motion directions throughout the workspace and enabling direct integr…
Trajectory planning is a fundamental problem in robotics, requiring the generation of collision-free and efficient trajectories in a potentially complex environment. While sampling-based planners remain the dominant approach, they are often computationally expensive, particularly…
This paper presents a safety-critical distributed nonlinear model predictive control (DNMPC) framework for cooperative payload transportation by teams of quadrupedal robots. The proposed approach models the robotic team and the shared payload as a dynamically coupled networked sy…
Motion planning algorithms compute control sequences that drive autonomous robots to goal regions while avoiding unsafe states. Existing methods, from sampling-based planning to deep reinforcement learning, typically provide task-completion guarantees only with respect to a nomin…
Long-reach drilling booms must reach successive poses without self-collision. Moving from operator-supervised control toward autonomy requires collision-aware motion planning and execution. For the Sandvik SB60, this study adapts established methods by integrating pose-parameteri…
Motion planning for rigid-body assembly poses a fundamental challenge in robotics due to tight geometric constraints. In such scenarios, feasible motions often require passing through (near-)zero clearance configurations in which the parts are tightly constrained by contact. In t…