From Non-Rigid to Rigid: Safe Acquisition of Rigid Communication Graphs under Limited Sensing

2026-07-11

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of constructing and maintaining a rigid communication graph in multi-robot systems operating under limited sensing and dynamic environments, where initial communication graphs are typically non-rigid. The authors propose a distributed optimization-based control approach that dispenses with the assumption of initial rigidity, integrating a leader–follower architecture, a hierarchical second-order consensus protocol, and rigidity graph theory. Relying solely on local sensing, the method enables robots to collaboratively achieve collision-free motion while simultaneously synthesizing a time-varying rigid communication graph. The framework is applicable to heterogeneous nonlinear systems and does not require global position information. Both simulations and hardware experiments using motion-capture systems demonstrate the method’s effectiveness in reliably generating rigid graphs under constrained sensing conditions.

Abstract

Communication graph rigidity is a fundamental requirement in many multi robot formation control approaches. However, ensuring and maintaining a rigid communication topology becomes challenging in practice due to limited sensing ranges and dynamic operating conditions. This paper provides a method for achieving an inter robot collision free, rigid time varying communication graph, where communication links are established or broken according to limited sensing ranges, without assuming an initial rigid graph. In addition, the proposed approach guarantees the realization of a rigid graph for heterogeneous nonlinear multi robot systems. A computationally lean, distributed quadratic optimization-based controller is developed for a leader follower architecture, acquiring rigidity based on hierarchical second-order consensus among robots. Follower agents do not require global absolute positions of any agent, including their own. The proposed method is validated through both simulations and hardware experiments in a motion-capture environment, demonstrating reliable performance under the limited sensing capabilities of individual robots.

Problem

• communication graph rigidity
• limited sensing
• multi-robot systems
• collision avoidance
• rigid topology

Innovation

• graph rigidity
• limited sensing
• distributed control
• multi-robot systems
• leader-follower architecture