Safe and Adaptive Multi-Target Encirclement With Socially Aware Multi-Robot Control

Chaib, Khaoula ; Alkhatib, Mohammad ; Achour, Nouara ; Aranda, Miguel (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Lequievre, Laurent ; Mezouar, Youcef ; Hamerlain, Mustapha

Resumen: This paper addresses the problem of surrounding and tracking dynamic groups of moving targets with unknown velocities using a team of mobile robots. We introduce a control strategy for multi-robot systems that continuously maintains a safety distance between each robot and the convex hull of the target group. In particular, these safety distances are defined based on social constraints, and the proposed control strategy enforces them while simultaneously maintaining a balanced geometric distribution. The stability of the distribution is studied formally and the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through numerical simulations and real-world tests using unicycle-model robots. The results show that the method provides suitable performance in dynamic scenarios, and it exhibits higher safety and adaptability than alternative approaches

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2026.3682584

Año: 2026

Publicado en: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 11, 6 (2026), 6608-6615
ISSN: 2377-3766

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Ingen.Sistemas y Automát. (Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms.)