Connectedness Preserving Distributed Swarm Aggregation for Multiple Kinematic Robots

Abstract-- A distributed swarm aggregation algorithm is developed for a team of multiple kinematic agents. Specifically, each agent is assigned with a control law which is the sum of two elements: a repulsive potential field, which is responsible for the collision avoidance objective, and an attractive potential field, that forces the agents to converge to a configuration where they are close to each other. Furthermore, the attractive potential field forces the agents that are initially located within the sensing radius of an agent to remain within this area for all time. In this way, the connectivity properties of the initially formed communication graph are rendered invariant for the trajectories of the closed-loop system. It is shown that under the proposed control law agents converge to a configuration where each agent is located at a bounded distance from each of its neighbors. The results are also extended to the case of nonholonomic kinematic unicycle-type agents and to the case...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TROB
• Authors: Dimos V. Dimarogonas, Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos
• Keywords: Attractive Potential Field, Multiple Kinematic Agents, Potential Field, TROB 2008