Peer Reviewed Journal via three different mandatory reviewing processes, since 2006, and, from September 2020, a fourth mandatory peer-editing has been added.
A strategy is described that utilizes a novel application of a
potential-force function that includes the tuning of coefficients
to control mobile robots orchestrated as a distributed multiagent
system. Control system parameters are manipulated
methodically via simulation and hardware experimentation to
gain a better understanding of their impact upon mission
performance of the multi-agent system as applied to a predetermined
task of area exploration and mapping. Also
included are descriptions of experiment infrastructure
components that afford convenient solutions to research
challenges. These consist of a surrogate localization (position
and orientation) function utilizing a novel MATLAB
executable (MEX) function and a user datagram protocol
(UDP)-based communications protocol that facilitates
communication among network-based control computers.