Connectivity preserving distributed swarm aggregation for multiple kinematic agents

Abstract

Abstract-A distributed swarm aggregation algorithm is developed for a team of multiple kinematic agents. Each agent is assigned with a control law which is the sum of two elements: a repulsive potential field, which is responsible for the collision avoidance objective, and an attractive potential field, that drives the agents to a configuration where they are close to each other and forces the agents that are initially located within the sensing radius of an agent to remain within this area for all time. In this way, the connectivity properties of the initially formed communication graph are rendered invariant for the trajectories of the closed loop system. It is shown that agents converge to a configuration where each agent is located at a bounded distance from each of its neighbors. The results are also extended to the case of nonholonomic kinematic agents and to the dynamic edge addition case, for which we derive a better bound in the swarm size than in the static case.

Flocking of mobile agents while preserving connectivity based on finite potential functions

“…where f α i and f γ i are defined the same as (8) and (12) with q, p replaced by x, v correspondingly, N * i0 is the set of agent i's neighbors based on the graph G 0 = G(x * 0 ) rather than the graph G(x 0 ), N i is based on the graph G(x) as defined before. We can see that for initial state (x * 0 , v * 0 ), the new controller (23) is just the same as before.…”

Decentralized connectivity maintenance in mobile networks with bounded inputs

“…Theorem 3: Assume that (1) is driven by (4) and that the initially formed communication graph under ruling (3) is connected. Further assume that G i (0) > 0 for all i ∈ N .…”

“…While this seems a valid assumption in the case of communication networks, it is not realistic in the case of mobile sensor/vehicle networks, where communication between a pair of nodes is usually distance dependent. Motivated by this, several recent papers [9], [10], [5], [21], [4], [2] considered the distributed connectivity maintenance problem. A common approach of these papers is the use of unbounded potential fields that force agents that constitute a distance based communication link, to remain within this distance for all time.…”

Consensus problems in networks of agents with double-integrator dynamics and time-varying delays

“…Dimarogonas and Kyriakopoulos (2007a) introduced a decentralised feedback control strategy which drives a system of multiple nonholonomic unicycles to a rendezvous point in terms of both position and orientation. Also, in Dimarogonas and Kyriakopoulos (2007b), strategies for connectivity preserving were proposed where connectivity is not just an assumption but an invariant property. Consensus problems with communication delays were studied in Moreau (2004), Saber and Murray (2004), Bliman and Ferrari-Trecate (2008) and Sun et al (2006Sun et al ( , 2008.…”