Multi-Robot Box Transport over Different Surfaces with Decentralized Role-based Proportional Control
This paper presents a decentralized approach called R2P2 for collaborative box transport by multiple robots across flat, uphill, and downhill terrains with varying friction. Robots are assigned roles (push, support, prevent) based on rules and use proportional velocity control, reducing communication and synchronization needs. Evaluated in simulation with six robots and validated physically with four turtlebots moving a 1.2 kg box, R2P2 outperforms virtual-leader-follower methods in success rate.
Article intelligence
Key points
- R2P2 assigns roles (push, support, prevent) via rules and uses proportional control for decentralized transport.
- Works on flat, uphill, downhill terrains with varying friction and box mass.
- Simulation shows higher success rate than virtual-leader-follower; physical experiment confirms feasibility.
Why it matters
This matters because r2P2 assigns roles (push, support, prevent) via rules and uses proportional control for decentralized transport.
Technical impact
May affect GPUs, inference clusters, compute cost, and supply-chain planning.
[2605.26430] Multi-Robot Box Transport over Different Surfaces with Decentralized Role-based Proportional Control
[Submitted on 26 May 2026]
Title:Multi-Robot Box Transport over Different Surfaces with Decentralized Role-based Proportional Control
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Abstract:Collaborative transport of objects via pushing by multiple robots has many applications, ranging from construction and warehouse environments to post disaster debris clean-up. Achieving collaborative transport over surfaces with different inclination and friction properties however poses unique challenges. To address these challenges, this paper presents an asynchronous decentralized task and motion planning approach for transporting rectangular boxes of varying mass over flat, uphill and downhill terrain. Such a decentralized approach alleviates communication, synchronization and consensus needs and mitigates single point of failure issues. Our approach, called R2P2 or Roles with Rules and Proportional-control Primitive, assigns roles (e.g., push, support and prevent) to robots based on rules cognizant of the mode of manipulation needed (box rotation vs translation); this is followed by either rule-based control or proportional control of robot velocity based on the roles. Each robot is assumed to observe the location and heading of self and the box in executing the role and controls. R2P2 is evaluated with a six-robot team deployed in a simulator built using NVIDIA IsaacSim -- demonstrating generalizability across different surface friction/inclination and box mass scenarios, and better success rate compared to a standard virtual-leader-follower method. R2P2 is also successfully validated with a physical experiment, where it is executed onboard four turtlebots tasked with moving a 1.2 kg box.
Subjects:
Robotics (cs.RO)
Cite as: arXiv:2605.26430 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2605.26430v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.26430
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
Submission history
From: Souma Chowdhury [view email] [v1] Tue, 26 May 2026 01:31:31 UTC (7,177 KB)
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