Target-enclosing control for second-order multi-agent systems

Abstract

This paper poses the enclosing control problem with identical geometry for a group of targets which are either stationary or moving and offers consensus-based distributed control protocols. An estimator is first introduced to estimate the central position of the targets. We then propose a target-enclosing control law with velocity information based on the centre estimating algorithm and consensus theory. A target-enclosing control law without the velocity information is further designed. The Lyapunov theory and Lasalle’s invariance principle are applied to show the convergence of the proposed control algorithms. Finally, numerical simulations are given to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed strategy.

Keywords:

• enclosing control
• multi-agent system
• Lasalle’s invariance principle
• Lyapunov theory
• distributed control

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from 973 plan (No. 2011CB707005) and by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. ZYGX2010J086).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Y.J. Shi

Yingjing Shi received his Ph.D. degree from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2008. He has been with University of Electronic Science and Technology of China since 2008. Currently, he is an associate professor with the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. From August 2013, he was a visiting scholar with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Curtin University of Technology. His research interests include aircraft control, system modelling and simulation, multi-agent systems and robust control.

R. Li

Rui Li received her Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering both from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2008. She is currently an associate professor in the School of Automation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Previously, she worked as a visiting research associate in Hong Kong Polytechnic University for half a year and as a visiting research associate in Curtin University of Technology for one year. From September 2011 to September 2012, she was a visiting scholar with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Riverside. Her research interests include optimisation theory and optimal control, nonlinear control, multi-agent systems and aircraft control. She is also a member of IEEE.

T.T. Wei

Tingting Wei was born in Hubei Province. She received her BS degree from the College of Science, Yanbian University, in 2011. She is currently working towards her MS degree from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Her current research interest is in the field of coordination of multi-agent systems.