Consensus strategies for cooperative control of vehicle formations.pdfVIP

Consensus strategies for cooperative control of vehicle formations W. Ren Abstract: Extensions of a consensus algorithm are introduced for systems modelled by second-order dynamics. Variants of those consensus algorithms are applied to tackle formation control problems by appropriately choosing information states on which consensus is reached. Even in the absence of centralised leadership, the consensus-based formation control strategies can guarantee accurate formation maintenance in the general case of arbitrary (directed) infor- mation flow between vehicles as long as certain mild conditions are satisfied. It is shown that many existing leader–follower, behavioural and virtual structure/virtual leader formation control approaches can be unified in the general framework of consensus building. A multiple micro air vehicle formation flying example is shown in simulation to illustrate the strategies. 1 Introduction information flow are discussed in the works of Tanner et al. [15, 16] and Olfati-Saber and Murray [17]. Accurate maintenance of a geometric configuration between Through appropriately choosing information states on multiple vehicles moving in formation has been studied which consensus is reached, consensus algorithms can extensively in the literature with the hope that through effi- be applied to tackle formation control problems. We cient coordination many inexpensive, simple vehicles can propose con