Flocking control of multi-agent system with leader-follower architecture using consensus based estimated flocking center

This paper is concerned about flocking control of a group of mobile agents having leader-follower configuration where the number of leaders is lesser in number than followers. The leaders have the navigation information where the followers only know who the leaders are. Artificial potential function is used to design the distributed control law of the agents. The leaders move as per the tracking information while avoiding collision with other agents. The followers estimate the position of the flocking center and tend to move towards it while aligning velocities and avoiding collisions with neighboring agents. A novel algorithm for estimation of flocking center is introduced in this paper. This algorithm uses consensus concept that makes the followers reach an agreement regarding the flocking center position. The stability analysis of this algorithm shows that the estimation error is asymptotically ε-stable. The agents do not need to know their own positions in global coordinates. The leaders do not access any information from other agents while the followers communicate with its neighboring agents to estimate the flocking center and also to control their motion, the neighborhood being defined by the limited communication range. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the algorithm.

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