The current paper investigates the topology design and shape control of a group of homogeneous mobile robots moving into a desired region. A new topology method, designed based on a multilevel structure, is employed to present different shapes of swarm robots in the desired region. A potential function-based controller, including a new shape regulation control force, is developed to control the robots in forming the desired formation shape. The shape regulation control force is used to address the local minima problem that causes the robots to get stuck at undesired positions. A Lyapunov approach is utilized to analyze the stability of the controlled system. Finally, simulations and experiments are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.