On a hierarchical control strategy for multi-agent formation without reflection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hierarchical control strategy for multi-agent formations in 2D that ensures desired distances without reflection ambiguity, scalable to many agents, and validated through analysis and simulations.

Contribution

It proposes a scalable hierarchical control method using a potential function with formation shaping, applicable to any number of agents, overcoming previous limitations.

Findings

Effective control without reflection ambiguity

Applicable to formations with more than four agents

Validated by analytical and numerical results

Abstract

This paper considers a formation shape control problem for point agents in a two-dimensional ambient space, where the control is distributed, is based on achieving desired distances between nominated agent pairs, and avoids the possibility of reflection ambiguities. This has potential applications for large-scale multi-agent systems having simple information exchange structure. One solution to this type of problem, applicable to formations with just three or four agents, was recently given by considering a potential function which consists of both distance error and signed triangle area terms. However, it seems to be challenging to apply it to formations with more than four agents. This paper shows a hierarchical control strategy which can be applicable to any number of agents based on the above type of potential function and a formation shaping incorporating a grouping of equilateral triangles, so that all controlled distances are in fact the same. A key analytical result and some numerical results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.