Distributed Stochastic Source Seeking for Multiple Vehicles over Fixed Topology

Abstract

This paper presents two distributed stochastic source seeking controllers to navigate multiple vehicles to seek the signal source, using the measurements of the signal field at their own positions and information of their neighbors. The first controller utilizes neighbors’ measurements of the signal field and the second controller utilizes relative positions between neighbors. The effectiveness of the proposed two controllers is proved by the stochastic averaging theory. The convergence speed of the source seeking system can be calculated for the first controller and it is proved that the convergence speed under the second controller is not slower than that under the first controller. In particular, the distributed controllers are effective for both connected and unconnected graph. Numerical simulations are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the controllers.