Angle-based formation stabilization and maneuvers in port-Hamiltonian form with bearing and velocity measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a port-Hamiltonian framework for formation stabilization and maneuvers using bearing and velocity measurements, enabling flexible, energy-based control of heterogeneous agent networks with complex dynamics.

Contribution

It develops a novel port-Hamiltonian controller based on angle constraints and virtual couplings, extendable to various agent dynamics and formation constraints.

Findings

Effective formation stabilization demonstrated in simulations.

Framework accommodates heterogeneous agent dynamics.

Estimator enables control without distance measurements.

Abstract

This paper proposes a port-Hamiltonian framework for angle-based formation stabilization and maneuvers using bearing and velocity measurements with an underlying triangulated Laman graph. The corresponding port-Hamiltonian controller is designed using virtual couplings on the errors of angle constraints in angle space and then the angle constraints and agent actuators are mapped by the constraint Jacobian, which can be applied to other formation constraints. In addition, due to the fact that the port-Hamiltonian model allows for complex and heterogeneous agent dynamics, our framework can be extended to networks with different agent dynamics and formation constraints. To avoid unavailable distance terms in the control law, an estimator is designed based on port-Hamiltonian theory and the property that energy is coordinate-free for different sensor modalities using bearing and velocity measurements, which permits our framework to inject damping for the formation maneuvers. Furthermore, several maneuvers are analyzed under both considerations of stabilization and transient performance. Simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.