Cooperative Moving Path Following Using Event Based Control and Communication

This paper introduces a Cooperative Moving Path Following (CMPF) approach where the robotic vehicles are required to converge to a desired geometric path specified with respect to a moving frame of reference, while maintaining a desired formation. This is in contrast to the existing Cooperative Path Following framework, where the robotic vehicles perform a coordinated maneuver to follow a fixed reference path. The results on the path following controllers are extended to incorporate the effects of moving frame of reference of the path, leading to a Lyapunov-based nonlinear control law for a moving path following motion control problem of an individual robotic vehicle. In order to achieve cooperation, the moving path following controllers are augmented with decentralized, first order consensus approach, resulting in a Cooperative Moving Path Following architecture. Furthermore, event-based control and communication methods are applied at the cooperation level to reduce the frequency of information exchange between the robotic vehicles. The advantage of the CMPF method proposed lies in its flexibility to choose different parameterizable paths and is illustrated in simulations through coordinated source seeking and convoy protection scenarios using under-actuated robotic vehicles.