This paper presents formation control based on potential functions for unicycle robots. The unicycle robots move to formation position which is made from a reference point and neighboring robots. In the framework, a local minimum case occurred by combination of potential repulsed from neighboring robots and potential attracted from a formation line is presented, in which the robot escapes from a local minimum using a virtual escape point after recognizing trapped situation. As well, in the paper, potential functions are designed to keep the same distance between neighboring robots on a formation line, i.e. the relative distance between neighboring robots on a formation line is controlled by a potential function parameter. The simulation results show that the proposed approach can effectively construct straight line, V, and polygon formation for multiple robots.