Udwadia-Kalaba approach based distributed consensus control for multi-mobile robot systems with communication delays

Abstract

In this paper, a distributed consensus algorithm for multi-mobile robot systems (MMRSs) with communication delays is proposed based on the Udwadia-Kalaba (UK) approach. The key feature of the proposed algorithm is that the consensus requirement is configured as a second-order constraint, and then a concise and explicit equation of motion for the constrained mechanical systems is formulated. Furthermore, the necessary and sufficient conditions for achieving the consensus of MMRSs with or without communication delays are developed under the network topology possessing a directed spanning tree. Finally, some numerical simulations are performed to verify the validity of the proposed consensus algorithm.