Decentralized sliding-mode control laws for the bearing-based formation tracking problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces decentralized sliding-mode control laws for bearing-based formation tracking, enabling followers to maintain formations with bounded leader velocities using local measurements and bearing constraints.

Contribution

It proposes novel decentralized sliding-mode control laws for bearing-based formation tracking, with stability analysis and numerical validation.

Findings

Control laws ensure formation stability under bounded leader velocities

Stability proven via Lyapunov theory

Numerical simulations confirm effectiveness

Abstract

This paper studies the time-varying bearing-based tracking of leader-follower formations. The desired constraints between agents are specified by bearing vectors, and several leaders are moving with a bounded reference velocity. Each followers can measure the relative positions of its neighbors, its own velocities, and receive information from their neighbors. Under the assumptions that the desired formation is infinitesimally bearing rigid and the local reference frames of followers are aligned with each other, two control laws are presented in this paper based on sliding mode control approach. Stability analyses are given based on Lyapunov stability theory and supported by numerical simulations.