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Specifically, we develop a virtual sub-target-based obstacle avoidance method, which involves a transitional virtual sub-target that guides the robots to avoid obstacles according to obstacle information, target, and boundary. Moreover, we develop a changing formation strategy to determine the necessity to avoid collisions and a priority-based model to determine which robots move, thus dynamically adjusting the relative distance between the followers and the leader. The backstepping-based sliding motion controller guarantees that the trajectory and velocity tracking errors converge to zero. The proposed robot navigation method can be employed in various environments and types of obstacles, allowing for a formation change. Furthermore, it is efficient and scalable under various numbers of robots. The approach is experimentally verified using three real mobile robots and up to five mobile robots in simulated scenarios.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics12040112","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,4]],"date-time":"2023-08-04T09:27:42Z","timestamp":1691141262000},"page":"112","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["A Hybrid Motion Planning Algorithm for Multi-Mobile Robot Formation Planning"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Haojie","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Sino-German Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University, 3002 Lantian Road, Shenzhen 518118, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zifan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Sino-German Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University, 3002 Lantian Road, Shenzhen 518118, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoxu","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Sino-German Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University, 3002 Lantian Road, Shenzhen 518118, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenke","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shenzhen Research Institute of Northwestern Polytechnical University, 45 Gaoxin South 9th Road, Shenzhen 518057, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shenzhen Research Institute of Northwestern Polytechnical University, 45 Gaoxin South 9th Road, Shenzhen 518057, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7973-8769","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wenjun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N5A9, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Sino-German Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University, 3002 Lantian Road, Shenzhen 518118, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"6","article-title":"Path planning of mobile robot by using modified optimized potential field method","volume":"113","author":"Ahmed","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. 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