A fully distributed approach to formation maneuvering control of multi-agent systems

This paper studies the formation maneuvering control problem for a network of agents with the objective of achieving a desired group formation shape and a constant over-all group maneuvering velocity. A fully distributed approach is developed to solve the problem. That is, a control law is proposed for each agent in the network, with its parameters capable of being designed in a distributed manner, and is implementable locally via relative sensing and communication with neighbors. Necessary and sufficient conditions regarding a critical control parameter are obtained to guarantee the globally asymptotic convergence of the overall system for both the single-integrator kinematics case and the double-integrator dynamics case.