This paper is concerned with the formation maintenance of a group of autonomous agents under generalized cyclic pursuit (GCP) law. The described pattern for agents under such formation is epicycle-like. For a network of agents to achieve such a formation, marginal stability of the overall network is required. The desired marginal stability of the network relies on each agents’ gain values, and uncertainties in these gains can occur. Previous studies have used fixed gains, we enhance the stability of the gains via a dynamic approach using an integral sliding controller (ISC). An ISC can ensure sliding behavior of the gains throughout the entire response, and it is shown that the gains are robust toward variations and thus make the network keep its marginal stability and its formation.

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In this article, methods of formation maintenance for a group of autonomous agents under ageneral topology scheme are discussed. Unlike rendezvous or geometric formation, general topology pursuit allows the group of agents to autonomously form trochoid patterns, which are useful in civilian and military applications. However, this type of topology is established by designing a marginally stable system that may be sensitive to parameter variations. To account for this drawback of stability, linear fixed-gains are turned into a dynamical version in this paper. By implementing a disturbance observer controller, systems are shown to maintain their formation despite the disturbances or uncertainties. Comparison in the effectiveness of the presented method with model reference adaptive control and integral sliding mode control under the uncertainties of the gains is also conducted. The capabilities of controllers are demonstrated and supported through simulations.

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