Adaptive Bearing-Only Formation Tracking Control for Nonholonomic Multiagent Systems.

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Control Theory
• Multiagent Systems

Background:

• Formation tracking is crucial for multiagent systems but often relies on relative position data.
• Existing methods struggle with bearing-only measurements, limiting practical applications.
• Nonholonomic constraints in multiagent systems add complexity to formation control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the formation tracking problem for nonholonomic multiagent systems using solely relative bearing measurements.
• To develop a decentralized control strategy that overcomes limitations of existing approaches requiring relative position data.
• To enable robust formation achievement under bearing-only constraints.

Main Methods:

• A fully distributed adaptive reference velocity estimator was proposed for asymptotic estimation of time-varying velocities.
• An input-to-state stable controller was designed based on bearing rigid theory.
• The scheme was validated through simulations and experimental tests.

Main Results:

• The proposed adaptive estimator successfully estimates time-varying reference velocities in a distributed manner.
• The bearing-rigid-theory-based controller achieves formation tracking under bearing-only constraints.
• Simulation and experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed formation tracking scheme.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables effective formation tracking for nonholonomic multiagent systems using only relative bearing information.
• This research advances the field by providing a practical solution for decentralized formation control with limited sensing.
• The findings have implications for coordinated robotics and autonomous systems operating with bearing-based navigation.