Rendezvous and Docking of Mobile Ground Robots for Efficient Transportation Systems

2026-02-23

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of achieving reliable autonomous physical docking for mobile ground robots from arbitrary initial poses during motion. The authors propose a centralized model predictive control (MPC) framework that explicitly models the dynamics of two omnidirectional wheeled robots along with docking interface constraints, integrating a purpose-designed approach strategy to enable precise cooperative rendezvous and dynamic coupling. Notably, this method is the first to jointly handle docking interface dynamics and motion planning within a unified control architecture, ensuring stable docking under arbitrary initial conditions. Experimental validation in a logistics handling scenario demonstrates that the proposed approach reduces task completion time by 19.75% and energy consumption by 21.04% compared to decoupled transportation methods, substantially improving operational efficiency.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Motion and Path Planning
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Planning
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

In-Motion physical coupling of multiple mobile ground robots has the potential to enable new applications like in-motion transfer that improves efficiency in handling and transferring goods, which tackles current challenges in logistics. A key challenge lies in achieving reliable autonomous in-motion physical coupling of two mobile ground robots starting at any initial position. Existing approaches neglect the modeling of the docking interface and the strategy for approaching it, resulting in uncontrolled collisions that make in-motion physical coupling either impossible or inefficient. To address this challenge, we propose a central mpc approach that explicitly models the dynamics and states of two omnidirectional wheeled robots, incorporates constraints related to their docking interface, and implements an approaching strategy for rendezvous and docking. This novel approach enables omnidirectional wheeled robots with a docking interface to physically couple in motion regardless of their initial position. In addition, it makes in-motion transfer possible, which is 19.75% more time- and 21.04% energy-efficient compared to a non-coupling approach in a logistic scenario.

Problem

• rendezvous
• docking
• mobile ground robots
• in-motion coupling
• autonomous

Innovation

• model predictive control
• in-motion docking
• omnidirectional mobile robots
• rendezvous and docking
• autonomous coupling