Circle formation control of second-order multi-agent systems with bounded measurement errors

Abstract

In this paper, the circle formation control problem of second-order multi-agent systems which are constrained to move on a circle is considered. Each agent can only measure the positions and velocities of its neighbors with bounded measurement errors. Using these inaccurate measurements, a distributed formation control laws is developed for each mobile agent. It is shown that under the proposed control law the multi-agent system can be driven to a neighborhood of the desired circle formation. The upper bound on the agents’ formation errors in the final configuration is also provided. Note that collision between mobile agents can be prevented if the agents’ spatial order on the circle is always preserved. The conditions under which order preservation of the agents is guaranteed during the formation task are also given. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed formation control law.