Coordinated Control of Multiple Interactive Dynamical Agents with Asymmetric Coupling Pattern and Switching Topology

This paper considers a group of mobile autonomous agents moving in the space with a virtual leader. We investigate the dynamic properties of the group for the case where the topology of the neighboring relations between agents varies with time and the coupling matrix is asymmetric. We introduce a set of switching control laws that enable the group to generate the desired stable flocking motion. The control laws are a combination of attractive/repulsive and alignment forces, and the control law acting on each agent relies on the state information of its neighbors and the external reference signal (or "virtual leader"). When the velocity damping is taken into account, we can appropriately modify the control laws to generate the same stable flocking motion. Numerical simulations are worked out to further illustrate our theoretical results