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In an earlier paper we had proposed a one step ahead optimization based distributed control law for autonomous agents, modeled as double integrators, that achieves a formation specified by relative position between agents. The law requires minimal information exchange between the agents and minimal knowledge on the part of each agent of the overall formation objective, and is fault tolerant and scalable, being easily reconfigurable in the face of the loss or arrival of an agent, and the loss of a communication link. In this earlier paper we had provided a framework to incorporate redundancy that allows a network to survive faults caused by the loss of agents and communications links. In this paper we consider a different aspect of redundancy: Specifically the impact it has on control performance of the law as quantified by the speed with which a desired formation is achieved.

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Abstract. A one step ahead optimization based control of autonomous agents is proposed. Each agent is modeled as a double integrator. We only define a geometric topology for the agent formation, and by correctly choosing the cost function, show that our algorithm produces a communication topology mirroring the geometric topology. By providing some redundancy in the formation topology it is possible for the system to survive the loss of an agent. Other attractions of the scheme are scalability, the requirement of only local knowledge of the desired formation topology and ease of reconfiguration in the face of loss of agents and/or channels.