Distributed control of a network of single integrators with limited angular fields of view

Abstract

The consensus and containment problems in a multi-agent system consisting of single integrators with angular field of view (FOV) constraints in their sensing capabilities are investigated in this paper. First, it is assumed that all FOVs are half-planes and an impulsive switching strategy is developed such that the underlying sensing graph of the network remains uniformly quasi-strongly connected (UQSC) throughout the system evolution. The control schemes are designed in the framework of switched interconnected systems in such a way that the objectives of consensus and containment are achieved over the entire network. Then, the problem is extended to address a network of single-integrator agents with limited heterogeneous angular FOVs. The FOV of all sensing devices are assumed to rotate with sufficiently large angular velocities, which are controlled independently along with the translational motion of all agents. The velocity vector and the lower bound on the magnitude of the angular velocity of the FOVs are designed such that the agents converge to an arbitrarily small ball, and reach consensus. The convergence of the moving followers to the convex hull of static leaders is addressed for the containment problem as well. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.