Model Predictive Control for Formation Placement and Recovery of Traffic Cone Robots

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This manuscript presents a formation placement control strategy for traffic cone robots. Leader-following topology is considered for the control stage. Model Predictive Control is selected as the control strategy. Both simulations and experiments were carried out to validate the viability of the proposed method. I believe that the authors have presented an interesting research. Nevertheless, there are some points that must be addressed:

1. The abstract should be improved. I recommend to start explaining the nature of the problem and then which solution the authors have found for it.

2. The first sentence of the introduction can be misleading and misunderstood. I suggest replacing “natural factors” for other term.

3. The introduction should be extended by including some details on path planning and tracking control, such as https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2023.3321415

4. Since this is a mechanical journal, please present the mechanical model of the traffic cone robot before the MPC design principles.

5. There are some state-space modelling mismatches, combining discrete and continuous formulations inappropriately. Please check and reformulate section 1.2, if necessary.

6. Several matrices remain undefined in section 1.2. It is therefore necessary to verify that each one is explained.

7. Please update equations (30) and (31) to allow for minimum linear and angular velocities below 0.

8. Please include a brief explanation about the nomenclature used in this manuscript at the end of the introduction.

9. In the Experiments section, please provide further details on how Matlab is used together with ROS.

10. Please provide some numerical indicators in the Conclusion section to support your work.

Minor issues

1. Please revise the indexing. “Introduction” is indexed as 0.

2. When referencing other works, I suggest avoiding expressions such as “in reference [ref]” (check line 30).

3. Please update the figures in order that each axis includes the units of the variables presented.

4. There’s a major typo error in line 112. Psi_lf refers to angles. Please correct.

5. Please include a list of abbreviations at the end of the manuscript, following the MDPI template guide.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please see the attached file. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

N/A

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

My concerns were addressed, and the manuscript has been revised accordingly.

Some minor formatting issues have been identified. The introduction is still indexed as 0, which is inappropriate. It is recommended that section numbering be initialized as 1.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have addressed my comments. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The manuscript can be accepted.