Multi-agent formation control for circumnavigation of dynamic shapes

TL;DR

This paper proposes a control protocol enabling multiple agents to circumnavigate a dynamic, irregularly shaped target by forming a regular polygon, with convergence guarantees and simulation validation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multi-agent formation control method for dynamic shapes with convergence proof and simulation validation.

Findings

Agents successfully circumnavigate dynamic target boundary.

Control protocol ensures convergence to desired formation.

Simulation confirms effectiveness of the proposed method.

Abstract

The problem of multi-agent formation control for target tracking is considered in this paper. The target is an irregular dynamic shape approximated by a circle with moving centre and varying radius. It is assumed that there are n agents and one of them is capable of measuring both the distance to the boundary of the target and to its centre. All the agents must circumnavigate the boundary of the target while forming a regular polygon. We also consider a satellite capable of providing an initial noisy estimate of the target. A control protocol is designed for all agents and the convergence to the desired state is proved up to a limit bound. A simulated example is provided to verify the performance of the control protocol designed in this paper.