Leader–Follower-Based Design for Multi-Vehicle Cooperative Control

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jiem.202503410

Author(s)

Mengxiang Chen, D.Munguntsetseg, M.Dovchinvanchig*

Affiliation(s)

School of Applied Sciences, Mongolian University of Life Sciences, Ulaanbaatar 17024, Mongolia *Corresponding Author

Abstract

This paper presents a multi-UGV cooperative control scheme that integrates an improved Leader–Follower method with consensus principles, enabling dynamic formation keeping and real-time obstacle avoidance. The system operates on a ROS multi-master framework, using MAVLink and Pixhawk for command execution, combined with ultrasonic ranging and IMU/GPS fusion for state estimation. Both Gazebo simulations and indoor real-vehicle tests (one leader and two followers) were conducted. Results show that the average position error is about 0.069 m in simulation and 0.098 m in real-vehicle experiments, with increased formation error and maximum instantaneous error. Analysis indicates that the primary causes of performance degradation include sensor noise, communication latency, and model–reality mismatch. Several improvements are recommended, such as enhanced sensor fusion, rigorous calibration, and delay-robust or adaptive control. These measures are expected to reduce the gap between simulation and real-world performance.

Keywords

Multi-Robot Formation Control; Unmanned Ground Vehicle; Leader–Follower; Virtual Structure

References

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