Connectivity guaranteed migration and tracking of multi-agent flocks

In this paper, we study the control strategy for connectivity guaranteed migration and trajectory tracking for multi-agent groups using artificial potential field (APF) based approach. Some agents, called active agents (AAs), that are attracted by the reference point (modeled as the virtual leader) lead the rest of the group to perform the tasks. An AA switching rule and the coupled flocking controller are proposed to realize the velocity consensus, inter-agent collision avoidance and joint connectivity of the group. Further, we show a geometric characterization and a stronger connectivity result of the group by the proposed controller under an additional assumption.