Formation tracking of multiple rectangular agents based on fully distributed observer

Abstract

In most existing studies, formation tracking algorithms are generally based on state feedback strategies and assume that agents are treated as points. However, in practical scenarios, directly obtaining the state of the target can often be challenging, and agents may have their own shapes. In this paper, we model agents as rectangles, allowing each agent to establish a safety zone to avoid collisions during formation. Based on these rectangular agents, we design formation tracking algorithms for a mobile target using only local output information. Specifically, two layers of control algorithms are designed for each agent. (1) Upper-level algorithm: two types of fully distributed mobile observers are constructed based on only a portion of the target’s output information. This is achieved by applying node-based adaptive coupling gains and edge-based adaptive gains to the consensus-based term in the state estimation algorithm, respectively. (2) Lower-level algorithm: a leader-following formation tracking algorithm is constructed. By cascading these two layers of algorithms, all agents track the target in formation at the same speed as the target. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.