Formation control for multiple nonlinear autonomous agents based on iterative method

This paper is concerned with approximate optimal formation control for multiple nonlinear autonomous agents based on iterative method. By designing some concatenation vectors, a whole multi-agent system is obtained, and the original formation control problem is transformed into a classic tracking problem. Based on the classic optimal tracking control theories, the optimal formation control problem is viewed as a two-point boundary value problem. Then, the approximate formation controller is obtained by using the successive approximation approach, which composes of analytic feedback terms and a compensation term. The compensation term can be obtained by calculating an iteration adjoint vectors. By introducing a finite term of the adjoint vector sequence, an approximate formation controller is designed. Simulation results show that the proposed approximate formation controller produces the better value of control performances.