Dynamic Tensegrity Based Cooperative Control of Uninhabited Vehicles

A new formation control methodology is presented in this paper. The proposed technique is modelled by using the concept of cross-tensegrity structures. The main task is to regulate the desired formation of a group of vehicles and to perform point-to-point manoeuvring in the plane. The position of the controlled vehicles in the formation changes with respect to the admissible tendon forces by varying the lengths of bars in the dynamic tensegrity structure modelling. This change of bars’ dimensions for geometric transformation is not possible in the application of tensegrity concept in the physical structural engineering. It has been demonstrated that this control method allows more flexibility over a wide range of different shape switching tasks using the predictable tendon control forces under the limited communication’s range. The proposed approach is also scalable to any number of pairs of autonomous vehicles in the formation.