Bearing-constrained Formation Tracking Control of Nonholonomic Agents without Inter-agent Communication

TL;DR

This paper introduces two control protocols for nonholonomic agents to achieve formation tracking based solely on bearing information, without inter-agent communication, ensuring the system converges to the desired formation asymptotically.

Contribution

The paper proposes novel bearing-constrained control schemes for nonholonomic agents that do not require communication or velocity information from leaders, expanding formation control methods.

Findings

System achieves desired formation asymptotically

Control protocols work without inter-agent communication

Simulation validates theoretical results

Abstract

This letter presents two bearing-constrained formation tracking control protocols for multiple nonholonomic agents based respectively on the bearing vectors and displacements between the agents. The desired formation pattern of the system is specified by the desired inter-agent bearing vectors. In the proposed control schemes, there are two or more leaders moving with the same constant velocity; the other follower agents do not have the information of the leaders' velocity nor communicate variables with their neighbors. Under both the proposed control laws, the system achieves the moving target formation asymptotically. Simulation results are provided to support the theoretical development.