{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,26]],"date-time":"2026-02-26T15:50:26Z","timestamp":1772121026105,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2010,6,22]],"date-time":"2010-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1277164800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2010,6,22]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The Group of Unmanned Assistant Robots Deployed in Aggregative Navigation by Scent (GUARDIANS) multi\u2010robot team is to be deployed in a large warehouse in smoke. The team is to assist firefighters search the warehouse in the event or danger of a fire. The large dimensions of the environment together with development of smoke which drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges for search and rescue operations. The GUARDIANS robots act alongside a firefighter and guide and accompany the firefighters on the site while indicating possible obstacles and the locations of danger and maintain communications links. The purpose of this paper is to focus on basic navigation behaviours of multi\u2010robot or human\u2010robot teams, which have to be achieved without central and on\u2010line control in both categories of GUARDIANS robots' tasks.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>In order to fulfill the aforementioned tasks, the robots need to be able to perform certain behaviours. Among the basic behaviours are capabilities to stay together as a group, that is, generate a formation and navigate while keeping this formation. The control model used to generate these behaviours is based on the so\u2010called social potential field framework, which the authors adapt to the specific tasks required for the GUARDIANS scenario. All tasks can be achieved without central control, and some of the behaviours can be performed without explicit communication between the robots.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The GUARDIANS environment requires flexible formations of the robot team: the formation has to adapt itself to the circumstances. Thus, the application has forced the concept of a formation to be re\u2010defined. Using the graph\u2010theoretic terminology, it can be said that a formation may be stretched out as a path or be compact as a star or wheel. The developed behaviours have been implemented in simulation environments as well as on real ERA\u2010MOBI robots commonly referred to as Erratics. Advantages and shortcomings of the model, based on the simulations as well as on the implementation with a team of Erratics are discussed.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>This paper discusses the concept of a robot formation in the context of a real world application of a robot team (Swarm).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/01439911011044831","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2010,6,26]],"date-time":"2010-06-26T07:24:31Z","timestamp":1277537071000},"page":"372-383","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Multi\u2010robot team formation control in the GUARDIANS project"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"37","author":[{"given":"Joan","family":"Saez\u2010Pons","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Lyuba","family":"Alboul","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Jacques","family":"Penders","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Leo","family":"Nomdedeu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022012920341061600_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alboul, L., Saez\u2010Pons, J. and Penders, J. 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