An inverse agreement control strategy with application to swarm dispersion

We propose an inverse agreement control strategy for multiple kinematic agents that forces the team members to disperse in the workspace in a distributed manner. Both the cases of an unbounded and a cyclic, bounded workspace are considered. In the first case, we show that the closed loop system reaches a configuration in which the minimum distance between any pair of agents is larger than a specific lower bound. It is proved that this lower bound coincides with the agents´ sensing radius. In the case of a bounded cyclic workspace, the control law is redefined in order to force the agents to remain within the workspace boundary throughout the closed loop system evolution. Moreover the proposed control design guarantees collision avoidance between the team members in both cases. The results are supported through relevant computer simulations.