# Flocking and Target Interception Control for Formations of Nonholonomic Kinematic Agents

## TL;DR

This paper develops control strategies for multiple nonholonomic robots to achieve flocking and target interception, using a graph-based framework and distributed observers, with proven stability and experimental validation.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel control approach combining graph rigidity, input transformation, and distributed estimation for nonholonomic robot formations.

## Key findings

- Proven convergence to desired formations and target tracking.
- Distributed control schemes effectively handle partial information.
- Experimental results validate the theoretical stability.

## Abstract

In this work, we present solutions to the flocking and target interception problems of multiple nonholonomic unicycle-type robots using the distance-based framework. The control laws are designed at the kinematic level and are based on the rigidity properties of the graph modeling the sensing/communication interactions among the robots. An input transformation is used to facilitate the control design by converting the nonholonomic model into the single integrator-like equation. We assume only a subset of the robots know the desired, time-varying flocking velocity or the target's motion. The resulting control schemes include distributed, variable structure observers to estimate the unknown signals. Our stability analyses prove convergence to the desired formation while tracking the flocking velocity or the target motion. The results are supported by experiments.