Distributed Control for Time-Varying Formation Acquisition and Tracking With Orientation Alignment in Multivehicle...

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Control Systems
• Distributed Computing

Background:

• Multiagent coordination requires complex motion control under limited sensing and communication.
• Existing solutions often demand significant onboard resources and global state information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop distributed control laws for time-varying formation tracking with minimal onboard resources.
• To integrate nonholonomic motion constraints into bearing-based designs for robust coordination.

Main Methods:

• Introduced distributed control laws integrating nonholonomic motion constraints into bearing-based designs.
• Utilized relative bearing feedback and orientation alignment for formation shape maintenance.
• Validated in leaderless nonhierarchical and leader-follower hierarchical formations.

Main Results:

• Guaranteed accurate tracking of time-varying reference trajectories.
• Preserved desired formation structures throughout coordination.
• Achieved velocity consensus in both hierarchical and nonhierarchical formations.

Conclusions:

• The proposed distributed controllers effectively manage multiagent coordination under constraints.
• The approach offers a resource-efficient solution for formation tracking and velocity consensus.
• Validated through analysis, simulations, and experiments in diverse formation types.