The distance-based formation controller design for multi-agent systems in port-Hamiltonian form

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel formation control method for multi-agent systems that ensures collision avoidance and velocity tracking using port-Hamiltonian dynamics and attraction-only potentials.

Contribution

It introduces a unified controller combining formation acquisition, velocity tracking, and safety, with stability guaranteed via LaSalle's invariance principle.

Findings

The proposed control strategy effectively prevents collisions in simulations.

The unified controller achieves formation and velocity tracking simultaneously.

Stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically guaranteed.

Abstract

Based on the practical scenario where collisions in formation control may lead to agent damage, this paper investigates the integrated problem of distance-based formation control and collision avoidance for multi-agent systems governed by port-Hamiltonian dynamics. A foundational step involves constructing a signed incidence matrix, which, by design, corresponds to a directed acyclic graph and possesses the full column rank property. To overcome the prevalent issue of local minima in traditional artificial potential fields, a novel design utilizing attraction-only potentials is introduced, with collision avoidance rigorously enforced by safety barriers. This framework leads to a unified controller that concurrently manages velocity tracking, target formation acquisition, and inter-agent safety. The stability of the resulting closed-loop system is guaranteed through LaSalle's invariance principle. Numerical simulations demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.