Local formation control strategies with undetermined and determined formation scales for co-leader vehicle networks

This paper studies the formation maneuvering problem, in which a group of agents achieves formations with flexible or controlled scales and follows two leaders in the network. Relative positions of neighbors are assumed to be sensed, which constitute a sensing graph, while another graph, called communication graph, exists to exchange estimate information of the leaders's velocity. A distributed local control strategy is then proposed to achieve the desired task, in which each agent responds to nearby agents in the sensing graph for shape control and synchronizes its velocity to its neighbors in the communication graph. Moreover, suppose the scale of the desired formation is known to two leaders of the network. Then we show that the team of agents can achieve rigid formations with determined scales regulated by the two leaders. Input-to-state stability analysis is recalled to show such asymptotic behaviors.