A Nonlinear Model-Predictive Motion Planning and Control System for Multi-Robots in a Microproduction System with Safety Constraints and a Global Long-Term Solution

The manufacturing of microsystems such as micromotors and micropumps among other examples
is a very important emerging market. One big challenge in microproduction is mass customization, that
is, the automated production of a large variety of products that are highly adapted to special customer
needs in small batch sizes. These requirements call for a highly flexible manufacturing system. This
study focuses on the multi-robot coordination of the resulting flexible microproduction system which
is solved here by the application of a multi-agent system. Additionally, all robots additionally applied
the proposed nonlinear model predictive control approach on a local real-time level to solve problems
associated with path-following and collision avoidance in parallel, while also considering differential
constraints on single robots, such as velocity constraints, in this specific application. The global longterm
motion planning approach was also considered as an optimization problem.