Consensus based attractive vector approach for formation control of nonholonomic mobile robots

A novel, decentralized switched-system approach is proposed to address the problem of controlling multiple nonholonomic mobile robots to achieve a desired formation as well as heading consensus. The formation is induced by each robot following an attractive vector derived using a virtual, isomorphic graph. Then, a novel switching control law is designed such that each robot follows its attractive vector and achieves consensus on the virtual graph, which will result in the multiple robot systems moving to the desired formation and achieving heading consensus. We prove the proposed control scheme is asymptotically stable. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a simulation and an experimental results are provided.