Rendezvous and Docking of Mobile Ground Robots for Efficient Transportation Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Fischer, Lars, Flögel, Daniel, Hohmann, Sören
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Fischer, Lars
Flögel, Daniel
Hohmann, Sören
author_facet Fischer, Lars
Flögel, Daniel
Hohmann, Sören
contents 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.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_19862
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Rendezvous and Docking of Mobile Ground Robots for Efficient Transportation Systems
Fischer, Lars
Flögel, Daniel
Hohmann, Sören
Systems and Control
Robotics
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.
title Rendezvous and Docking of Mobile Ground Robots for Efficient Transportation Systems
topic Systems and Control
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19862