Leader-follower navigation is a popular class of multi-robot algorithms where a leader robot leads the follower robots in a team. The leader has specialized capabilities or mission-critical information (e.g. goal location) that the followers lack, and this makes the leader crucial for the mission's success. However, this also makes the leader a vulnerability - an external adversary who wishes to sabotage the robot team's mission can simply harm the leader and the whole robot team's mission would be compromised. Since robot motion generated by traditional leader-follower navigation algorithms can reveal the identity of the leader, we propose a defense mechanism of hiding the leader's identity by ensuring the leader moves in a way that behaviorally camouflages it with the followers, making it difficult for an adversary to identify the leader. To achieve this, we combine Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, Graph Neural Networks and adversarial training. Our approach enables the multi-robot team to optimize the primary task performance with leader motion similar to follower motion, behaviorally camouflaging it with the followers. Our algorithm outperforms existing work that tries to hide the leader's identity in a multi-robot team by tuning traditional leader-follower control parameters with Classical Genetic Algorithms. We also evaluated human performance in inferring the leader's identity and found that humans had lower accuracy when the robot team used our proposed navigation algorithm.
CoLF: Learning Consistent Leader-Follower Policies for Vision-Language-Guided Multi-Robot Cooperative Transport
Division of Information Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST)（信息科学系，科学技术研究生学校，科学与技术国立研究所（NAIST））；École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院（EPFL））
Most of the existing formation algorithms for multiagent systems are fully label-specified, i.e., the desired position for each agent in the formation is uniquely determined by its label, which would inevitably make the formation algorithms vulnerable to agent failures. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a dynamic leader-follower approach to solving the line marching problem for a swarm of planar kinematic robots. In contrast to the existing results, the desired positions for the robots in the line are not fully label-specified, but determined in a dynamic way according to the cu…
A leader-follower framework is proposed for multi-robot navigation of large scale teams where the leader agents corral the follower agents. A group of leaders is modeled as a 2D deformable object where discrete masses (i.e., leader robots) are interconnected by springs and dampers. A time-varying domain is defined by the positions of leaders while the external forces induce deformations of the domain from its nominal configuration. The team of followers is performing coverage over the time-varying domain by employing a perspective transformation that maps between the nominal and deformed confi…
We present a range-based solution for indoor relative localization by Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), achieving sufficient accuracy for leader-follower flight. Moving forward from previous work, we removed the dependency on a common heading measurement by the MAVs, making the relative localization accuracy independent of magnetometer readings. We found that this restricts the relative maneuvers that guarantee observability, and also that higher accuracy range measurements are required to rectify the missing heading information, yet both disadvantages can be tackled. Our implementation uses Ultra Wi…
In this paper, we propose a leader-follower hierarchical strategy for two robots collaboratively transporting an object in a partially known environment with obstacles. Both robots sense the local surrounding environment and react to obstacles in their proximity. We consider no explicit communication, so the local environment information and the control actions are not shared between the robots. At any given time step, the leader solves a model predictive control (MPC) problem with its known set of obstacles and plans a feasible trajectory to complete the task. The follower estimates the input…
Jožef Stefan Institute（约泽夫·斯蒂芬研究所）；Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School（约泽夫·斯蒂芬国际研究生院）；Ulm University（乌尔姆大学）
A question that many researchers in social robotics are addressing is how to create more human-like behaviour in robots to make the collaboration between a human and a robot more intuitive to the human partner. In order to develop a human-like collaborative robotic system, however, human collaboration must first be better understood. Human collaboration is something we are all familiar with, however not that much is known about it from a kinematic standpoint. One dynamic that hasn't been researched thoroughly, yet naturally occurs in human collaboration, is for instance leader-follower dynamic…
In this paper, we present a directional antenna-based leader-follower robotic relay system capable of building end-to-end communication in complicated and dynamically changing environments. The proposed system consists of multiple networked robots - one is a mobile end node and the others are leaders or followers acting as radio relays. Every follower uses directional antennas to relay a communication radio and to estimate the location of the leader robot as a sensory device. For bearing estimation, we employ a weight centroid algorithm (WCA) and present a theoretical analysis of the use of WC…
In this paper, a time-varying leader-follower formation control of nonholonomic mobile robots based on a trajectory tracking control strategy is considered. In the time-varying formation, the relative bearing and distance of each follower are variable parameters, and therefore, the followers can carry out various and complex behaviour even without changing the linear and angular velocities of the leader robot. After proposing the kinematic model of the time-varying leader-follower formation, the backstepping control method is exploited to keep the structure of the defined formation. The global…
Missouri University of Science and Technology（密苏里科技大学）
Mobile and slow moving operations, such as striping, sweeping, bridge flushing and pothole patching, are critical for efficient and safe operation of the highway transportation system. A successfully implemented leader follower autonomous truck mounted attenuators system will eliminate all injuries to DOT employees in follow truck provided appropriate Statutory authority. The leader follower system design imposes more requirements to the lead truck drivers in order to ensure a safe and smooth system operation. The driver is now required to make driving decisions not only from the lead truck's …
Vision-Based Leader-Follower Formation Control for Cooperative UAVs in GPS-Degraded Environments
Autonomous Robotics Systems Limited（自主机器人系统有限公司）；University of Hyderabad（海得拉巴大学）；Ideabytes Software India Private Limited（Ideabytes软件印度私人有限公司）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；Tata Consultancy Services（塔塔咨询服务公司）；University of Malaya（马来亚大学）
Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, University of Texas, Austin（得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校奥登计算工程与科学研究所）；University of Florida（佛罗里达大学）
This paper develops a controller synthesis approach for a multi-agent system (MAS) with intermittent communication. We adopt a leader-follower scheme, where a mobile leader with absolute position sensors switches among a set of followers without absolute position sensors to provide each follower with intermittent state information.We model the MAS as a switched system. The followers are to asymptotically reach a predetermined consensus state. To guarantee the stability of the switched system and the consensus of the followers, we derive maximum and minimal dwell-time conditions to constrain th…
Distributed 3D Leader-Follower Formation Control with Field-of-View Safety via Control Barrier Functions
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston（休斯敦大学电气与计算机工程系）；Department of Engineering Technology, University of Houston（休斯敦大学工程技术系）
