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Tight formation-based operations are critical in several emerging applications for robot collectives — ranging from cooperative payload transport to synchronized distributed data-collection. In this paper, we investigate the optimal relative layout for members of a team of Differentially-Driven Wheeled Mobile Robots (DD-WMRs) moving in formation for ultimate deployment in cooperative payload transport tasks. Our particular focus is on modeling such formations, developing the motion plans and determining the “best formation” in a differential-geometric setting. Specifically, a preferred team-fixed frame serves as a virtual leader inducing motion plans for the individual DD-WMRs which form the vertices of a virtual structure. The resulting motion plans for the DD-WMRs as well as overall team-performance depend both on the specifiedteam-frame motions as well as their relative-layout within the formation. Emphasis is …