Distributed formation control of networked mechanical systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes a scalable distributed control law for large-scale mechanical networks, ensuring formation stability and tracking using a port-Hamiltonian framework and directed communication graphs.

Contribution

It introduces a novel distributed formation control method for networked mechanical systems with proven scalability and stability, applicable to large networks.

Findings

The control law achieves asymptotic formation stability.

Simulation confirms effectiveness for large-scale networks.

Scalability with network size is theoretically validated.

Abstract

This paper investigates a distributed formation tracking control law for large-scale networks of mechanical systems. In particular, the formation network is represented by a directed communication graph with leaders and followers, where each agent is described as a port-Hamiltonian system with a constant mass matrix. Moreover, we adopt a distributed parameter approach to prove the scalable asymptotic stability of the network formation, i.e., the scalability with respect to the network size and the specific formation preservation. A simulation case illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.