Dear Editor,This letter addresses the formation control problem for constrained underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The feasibility condition of the virtual control law is eliminated by introducing a ...Dear Editor,This letter addresses the formation control problem for constrained underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The feasibility condition of the virtual control law is eliminated by introducing a nonlinear state dependence function (NSDF) that transforms the state of each AUV in the formation.展开更多
Formation control remains a critical challenge in cooperative multi-agent systems,particularly for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles(UUVs).Conventional approaches often suffer from several limitations,including reliance on...Formation control remains a critical challenge in cooperative multi-agent systems,particularly for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles(UUVs).Conventional approaches often suffer from several limitations,including reliance on global information,limited adaptability,high computational complexity,and poor scalability.To address these issues,we propose a novel bio-inspired formation control method for UUV swarms,drawing inspiration from the self-organizing behavior of fish schools.Our method integrates three key components:(1)a coordinated motion strategy without predefined targets that enables individual UUVs to align their movements via simple left or right rotations based solely on local neighbor interactions;(2)a target-directed movement strategy that guides UUVs toward specified regions;and(3)a dispersion control strategy that prevents overcrowding by regulating local spatial distributions.Simulation results confirm that the method achieves robust formation control and efficient area coverage using only local perception.Validation in a 9-UUV simulation environment demonstrates the approach’s flexibility,decentralization,and computational efficiency,making it particularly suitable for large-scale swarms with limited sensing and processing capabilities.展开更多
Formation control in multi-agent systems has become a critical area of interest due to its wide-ranging applications in robotics,autonomous transportation,and surveillance.While various studies have explored distribut...Formation control in multi-agent systems has become a critical area of interest due to its wide-ranging applications in robotics,autonomous transportation,and surveillance.While various studies have explored distributed cooperative control,this review focuses on the theoretical foundations and recent developments in formation control strategies.The paper categorizes and analyzes key formation types,including formation maintenance,group or cluster formation,bipartite formations,event-triggered formations,finite-time convergence,and constrained formations.A significant portion of the review addresses formation control under constrained dynamics,presenting both modelbased and model-free approaches that consider practical limitations such as actuator bounds,communication delays,and nonholonomic constraints.Additionally,the paper discusses emerging trends,including the integration of eventdriven mechanisms and AI-enhanced coordination strategies.Comparative evaluations highlight the trade-offs among various methodologies regarding scalability,robustness,and real-world feasibility.Practical implementations are reviewed across diverse platforms,and the review identifies the current achievements and unresolved challenges in the field.The paper concludes by outlining promising research directions,such as adaptive control for dynamic environments,energy-efficient coordination,and using learning-based control under uncertainty.This review synthesizes the current state of the art and provides a road map for future investigation,making it a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners aiming to advance formation control in multi-agent systems.展开更多
Dear Editor,This letter considers the formation control of multiple mobile robot systems(MMRS)that only relies on the local observation information.A new distributed finite-time observer is proposed for MMRS under dir...Dear Editor,This letter considers the formation control of multiple mobile robot systems(MMRS)that only relies on the local observation information.A new distributed finite-time observer is proposed for MMRS under directed graph to estimate the relative information between each follower robot and the leader robot.Then the formation control problem is transformed into the tracking problem and a finite-time tracking controller is proposed based on the robot model feature.展开更多
In this paper,the distributed optimal formation control problem of heterogeneous Euler–Lagrange multi-agent systems with generic formation constraints and inequality constraints is investigated.Based on the primal–d...In this paper,the distributed optimal formation control problem of heterogeneous Euler–Lagrange multi-agent systems with generic formation constraints and inequality constraints is investigated.Based on the primal–dual dynamics and the adaptive control technique,a distributed optimal formation controller consists of a velocity reference signal generator and a velocity tracking controller is proposed.By using the optimality condition,the relationship between the equilibrium point of the closed-loop system and the optimal solution of the optimization problem is established.Then,by utilizing Lyapunov stability analysis,it is rigorously proved that the optimal formation is reached with the proposed controller.Lastly,simulation examples are provided to substantiate the theoretical results.展开更多
The paper proposes a Virtual Target Guidance(VTG)-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC) scheme for formation control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First, a framework of distributed MPC scheme is...The paper proposes a Virtual Target Guidance(VTG)-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC) scheme for formation control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First, a framework of distributed MPC scheme is designed in which each UAV only shares the information with its neighbors, and the obtained local Finite-Horizon Optimal Control Problem(FHOCP) can be solved by swarm intelligent optimization algorithm.Then, a VTG approach is developed and integrated into the distributed MPC scheme to achieve trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance.Further, an event-triggered mechanism is proposed to reduce the computational burden for UAV formation control, which takes into consideration the predictive state errors as well as the convergence of cost function.Numerical simulations show that the proposed VTG-based distributed MPC scheme is more computationally efficient to achieve formation control of multiple UAVs in comparison with the traditional distributed MPC method.展开更多
In this paper,the flight formation control problem of a group of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles（UAVs） with parametric uncertainties and external disturbances is studied.Unitquaternions are used to represent the ...In this paper,the flight formation control problem of a group of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles（UAVs） with parametric uncertainties and external disturbances is studied.Unitquaternions are used to represent the attitudes of the quadrotor UAVs.Separating the model into a translational subsystem and a rotational subsystem,an intermediary control input is introduced to track a desired velocity and extract desired orientations.Then considering the internal parametric uncertainties and external disturbances of the quadrotor UAVs,the priori-bounded intermediary adaptive control input is designed for velocity tracking and formation keeping,by which the bounded control thrust and the desired orientation can be extracted.Thereafter,an adaptive control torque input is designed for the rotational subsystem to track the desired orientation.With the proposed control scheme,the desired velocity is tracked and a desired formation shape is built up.Global stability of the closed-loop system is proven via Lyapunov-based stability analysis.Numerical simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.展开更多
Formation control is a cooperative control concept in which multiple autonomous underwater mobile robots are deployed for a group motion and/or control mission. This paper presents a brief review on various cooperativ...Formation control is a cooperative control concept in which multiple autonomous underwater mobile robots are deployed for a group motion and/or control mission. This paper presents a brief review on various cooperative search and formation control strategies for multiple autonomous underwater vehicles （AUV） based on literature reported till date. Various cooperative and formation control schemes for collecting huge amount of data based on formation regulation control and formation tracking control are discussed. To address the challenge of detecting AUV failure in the fleet, communication issues, collision and obstacle avoidance are also taken into attention. Stability analysis of the feasible formation is also presented. This paper may be intended to serve as a convenient reference for the further research on formation control of multiple underwater mobile robots.展开更多
This paper addresses a target-enclosing problem for multiple spacecraft systems by proposing a two-layer affine formation control strategy. Compared with the existing methods,the adopted two-layer network structure in...This paper addresses a target-enclosing problem for multiple spacecraft systems by proposing a two-layer affine formation control strategy. Compared with the existing methods,the adopted two-layer network structure in this paper is generally directed, which is suitable for practical space missions. Firstly, distributed finite-time sliding-mode estimators and formation controllers in both layers are designed separately to improve the flexibility of the formation control system. By introducing the properties of affine transformation into formation control protocol design,the controllers can be used to track different time-varying target formation patterns. Besides, multilayer time-varying encirclements can be achieved with particular shapes to surround the moving target. In the sequel, by integrating adaptive neural networks and specialized artificial potential functions into backstepping controllers, the problems of uncertain Euler-Lagrange models, collision avoidance as well as formation reconfiguration are solved simultaneously. The stability of the proposed controllers is verified by the Lyapunov direct method. Finally, two simulation examples of triangle formation and more complex hexagon formation are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the theoretical results.展开更多
Rare metals including Lithium(Li),Beryllium(Be),Rubidium(Rb),Cesium(Cs),Zirconium(Zr),Hafnium(Hf),Niobium(Nb),Tantalum(Ta),Tungsten(W)and Tin(Sn)are important critical mineral resources.In China,rare metal mineral dep...Rare metals including Lithium(Li),Beryllium(Be),Rubidium(Rb),Cesium(Cs),Zirconium(Zr),Hafnium(Hf),Niobium(Nb),Tantalum(Ta),Tungsten(W)and Tin(Sn)are important critical mineral resources.In China,rare metal mineral deposits are spatially distributed mainly in the Altay and Southern Great Xingán Range regions in the Central Asian orogenic belt;in the Middle Qilian,South Qinling and East Qinling mountains regions in the Qilian-Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt;in the Western Sichuan and Bailongshan-Dahongliutan regions in the Kunlun-Songpan-Garze orogenic belt,and in the Northeastern Jiangxi,Northwestern Jiangxi,and Southern Hunan regions in South China.Major ore-forming epochs include Indosinian(mostly 200-240 Ma,in particular in western China)and the Yanshanian(mostly 120-160 Ma,in particular in South China).In addition,Bayan Obo,Inner Mongolia,northeastern China,with a complex formation history,hosts the largest REE and Nb deposits in China.There are six major rare metal mineral deposit types in China:Highly fractionated granite;Pegmatite;Alkaline granite;Carbonatite and alkaline rock;Volcanic;and Hydrothermal types.Two further types,namely the Leptynite type and Breccia pipe type,have recently been discovered in China,and are represented by the Yushishan Nb-Ta-(Zr-Hf-REE)and the Weilasituo Li-Rb-Sn-W-Zn-Pb deposits.Several most important controlling factors for rare metal mineral deposits are discussed,including geochemical behaviors and sources of the rare metals,highly evolved magmatic fractionation,and structural controls such as the metamorphic core complex setting,with a revised conceptual model for the latter.展开更多
Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of...Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of networks, which are aimed at ensuring that the concerned states of agents converge to a constant or time-varying reference state, new consensus tracking protocols with a constant and time-varying reference state are proposed, respectively. Particularly, by contrast with spanning tree, an improved condition of switching interaction topology is presented. And then, convergence analysis of two consensus tracking protocols is provided by Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, consensus tracking protocol with a time-varying reference state is extended to achieve the fbrmation control. By introducing formation structure set, each agent can gain its individual desired trajectory. Finally, several simulations are worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical results. The test results show that the states of agents can converge to a desired constant or time-varying reference state. In addition, by selecting appropriate structure set, agents can maintain the expected formation under random switching interaction topologies.展开更多
This paper deals with the problem of distributed formation tracking control and obstacle avoidance of multivehicle systems(MVSs)in complex obstacle-laden environments.The MVS under consideration consists of a leader v...This paper deals with the problem of distributed formation tracking control and obstacle avoidance of multivehicle systems(MVSs)in complex obstacle-laden environments.The MVS under consideration consists of a leader vehicle with an unknown control input and a group of follower vehicles,connected via a directed interaction topology,subject to simultaneous unknown heterogeneous nonlinearities and external disturbances.The central aim is to achieve effective and collisionfree formation tracking control for the nonlinear and uncertain MVS with obstacles encountered in formation maneuvering,while not demanding global information of the interaction topology.Toward this goal,a radial basis function neural network is used to model the unknown nonlinearity of vehicle dynamics in each vehicle and repulsive potentials are employed for obstacle avoidance.Furthermore,a scalable distributed adaptive formation tracking control protocol with a built-in obstacle avoidance mechanism is developed.It is proved that,with the proposed protocol,the resulting formation tracking errors are uniformly ultimately bounded and obstacle collision avoidance is guaranteed.Comprehensive simulation results are elaborated to substantiate the effectiveness and the promising collision avoidance performance of the proposed scalable adaptive formation control approach.展开更多
In this paper,periodic event-triggered formation control problems with collision avoidance are studied for leader–follower multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).Firstly,based on the Artificial Potential Field(APF)m...In this paper,periodic event-triggered formation control problems with collision avoidance are studied for leader–follower multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).Firstly,based on the Artificial Potential Field(APF)method,a novel sliding manifold is proposed for controller design,which can solve the problem of collision avoidance.Then,the event-triggered strategy is applied to the distributed formation control of multi-UAV systems,where the evaluation of the event condition is continuous.In addition,the exclusion of Zeno behavior can be guaranteed by the inter-event time between two successive trigger events have a positive lower bound.Next,a periodic event-triggered mechanism is developed for formation control based on the continuous eventtriggered mechanism.The periodic trigger mechanism does not need additional hardware circuits and sophisticated sensors,which can reduce the control cost.The stability of the control system is proved by the Lyapunov function method.Finally,some numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.展开更多
In this paper a stable formation control law that simultaneously ensures collision avoidance has been proposed.It is assumed that the communication graph is undirected and connected.The proposed formation control law ...In this paper a stable formation control law that simultaneously ensures collision avoidance has been proposed.It is assumed that the communication graph is undirected and connected.The proposed formation control law is a combination of the consensus term and the collision avoidance term(CAT).The first order consensus term is derived for the proposed model,while ensuring the Lyapunov stability.The consensus term creates and maintains the desired formation shape,while the CAT avoids the collision.During the collision avoidance,the potential function based CAT makes the agents repel from each other.This unrestricted repelling magnitude cannot ensure the graph connectivity at the time of collision avoidance.Hence we have proposed a formation control law,which ensures this connectivity even during the collision avoidance.This is achieved by the proposed novel adaptive potential function.The potential function adapts itself,with the online tuning of the critical variable associated with it.The tuning has been done based on the lower bound of the critical variable,which is derived from the proposed connectivity property.The efficacy of the proposed scheme has been validated using simulations done based on formations of six and thirty-two agents respectively.展开更多
Formation control and obstacle avoidance for multi-agent systems have attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the problems of formation control and obstacle avoidance are investigated by means of a consensus...Formation control and obstacle avoidance for multi-agent systems have attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the problems of formation control and obstacle avoidance are investigated by means of a consensus algorithm. A novel distributed control model is proposed for the multi-agent system to form the anticipated formation as well as achieve obstacle avoidance. Based on the consensus algorithm, a distributed control function consisting of three terms （formation control term, velocity matching term, and obstacle avoidance term） is presented. By establishing a novel formation control matrix, a formation control term is constructed such that the agents can converge to consensus and reach the anticipated formation. A new obstacle avoidance function is developed by using the modified potential field approach to make sure that obstacle avoidance can be achieved whether the obstacle is in a dynamic state or a stationary state. A velocity matching term is also put forward to guarantee that the velocities of all agents converge to the same value. Furthermore, stability of the control model is proven. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control.展开更多
While different species in nature have safely solved the problem of navigation in a dynamic environment, this remains a challenging task for researchers around the world. The paper addresses the problem of autonomous ...While different species in nature have safely solved the problem of navigation in a dynamic environment, this remains a challenging task for researchers around the world. The paper addresses the problem of autonomous navigation in an unknown dynamic environment for a single and a group of three wheeled omnidirectional mobile robots(TWOMRs). The robot has to track a dynamic target while avoiding dynamic obstacles and dynamic walls in an unknown and very dense environment. It adopts a behavior-based controller that consists of four behaviors: "target tracking", "obstacle avoidance", "dynamic wall following" and "avoid robots". The paper considers the problem of kinematic saturation. In addition, it introduces a strategy for predicting the velocity of dynamic obstacles based on two successive measurements of the ultrasonic sensors to calculate the velocity of the obstacle expressed in the sensor frame. Furthermore, the paper proposes a strategy to deal with dynamic walls even when they have U-like or V-like shapes. The approach can also deal with the formation control of a group of robots based on the leader-follower structure and the behavior-based control, where the robots have to get together and maintain a given formation while navigating toward the target, avoiding obstacles and walls in a dynamic environment. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is demonstrated via simulation.展开更多
In this paper,we investigate formation tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)with model parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.The external disturbances due to the wind,waves,and ocean cur...In this paper,we investigate formation tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)with model parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.The external disturbances due to the wind,waves,and ocean currents are combined with the model parameter uncertainties as a compound disturbance.Then a disturbance observer(DO)is introduced to estimate the compound disturbance,which can be achieved within a finite time independent of the initial estimation error.Based on a DO,a novel fixed-time sliding control scheme is developed,by which the follower vehicle can track the leader vehicle with all the states globally stabilized within a given settling time.The effectiveness and performance of the method are demonstrated by numerical simulations.展开更多
The formation control problem for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles(USVs) is addressed by a distributed strategy based on virtual leader strategy. The control system takes account of disturbance induced by exter...The formation control problem for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles(USVs) is addressed by a distributed strategy based on virtual leader strategy. The control system takes account of disturbance induced by external environment. With the coordinate transformation, the advantage of the proposed scheme is that the control point can be any point of the ship instead of the center of gravity. By introducing bio-inspired model, the formation control problem is addressed with backstepping method. This avoids complicated computation, simplifies the control law,and smoothes the input signals. The system uniform ultimate boundness is proven by Lyapunov stability theory with Young inequality. Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness and robust of the proposed controller.展开更多
Path planning and formation structure forming are two of the most important problems for autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs) to collaborate with each other.In this work,a dynamic formation model was proposed,in which...Path planning and formation structure forming are two of the most important problems for autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs) to collaborate with each other.In this work,a dynamic formation model was proposed,in which several algorithms were developed for the complex underwater environment.Dimension changeable particle swarm algorithm was used to find an optimized path by dynamically adjusting the number and the distribution of the path nodes.Position relationship based obstacle avoidance algorithm was designed to detour along the edges of obstacles.Virtual potential point based formation-keeping algorithm was employed by incorporating dynamic strategies which were decided by the current states of the formation.The virtual potential point was used to keep the formation structure when the AUV or the formation was deviated.Simulation results show that an optimal path can be dynamically planned with fewer path nodes and smaller fitness,even with a concave obstacle.It has been also proven that different formation-keeping strategies can be adaptively selected and the formation can change its structure in a narrow area and restore back after passing the obstacle.展开更多
The main contribution of this paper is the design of an event-triggered formation control for leader-following consensus in second-order multi-agent systems(MASs)under communication faults.All the agents must follow t...The main contribution of this paper is the design of an event-triggered formation control for leader-following consensus in second-order multi-agent systems(MASs)under communication faults.All the agents must follow the trajectories of a virtual leader despite communication faults considered as smooth time-varying delays dependent on the distance between the agents.Linear matrix inequalities(LMIs)-based conditions are obtained to synthesize a controller gain that guarantees stability of the synchronization error.Based on the closed-loop system,an event-triggered mechanism is designed to reduce the control law update and information exchange in order to reduce energy consumption.The proposed approach is implemented in a real platform of a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)under communication faults.A comparison between a state-of-the-art technique and the proposed technique has been provided,demonstrating the performance improvement brought by the proposed approach.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62073094)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(3072024GH0404)
文摘Dear Editor,This letter addresses the formation control problem for constrained underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The feasibility condition of the virtual control law is eliminated by introducing a nonlinear state dependence function (NSDF) that transforms the state of each AUV in the formation.
基金supported by The Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research for Liaoning Provincial Governed Universities(2024JBZDZ004)Fishery Central Financial Support Project of Liaoning Province(2023)+5 种基金Liaoning Province Key Research and Development Plan(2023JH26/10200015)Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province(2020-KF-12-09)The Liaoning Provincial Education Commission Fund(LJKZ0730,QL202016)Applied Basic Research Project of Science and Technology Commission of Liaoning Province(2022JH2/101300187)Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Environmental Control Aquaculture of Ministry of Education(Dalian Ocean University)(202219)Liaoning Province Science and Technology Plan Joint Program(2024JH2/102600083).
文摘Formation control remains a critical challenge in cooperative multi-agent systems,particularly for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles(UUVs).Conventional approaches often suffer from several limitations,including reliance on global information,limited adaptability,high computational complexity,and poor scalability.To address these issues,we propose a novel bio-inspired formation control method for UUV swarms,drawing inspiration from the self-organizing behavior of fish schools.Our method integrates three key components:(1)a coordinated motion strategy without predefined targets that enables individual UUVs to align their movements via simple left or right rotations based solely on local neighbor interactions;(2)a target-directed movement strategy that guides UUVs toward specified regions;and(3)a dispersion control strategy that prevents overcrowding by regulating local spatial distributions.Simulation results confirm that the method achieves robust formation control and efficient area coverage using only local perception.Validation in a 9-UUV simulation environment demonstrates the approach’s flexibility,decentralization,and computational efficiency,making it particularly suitable for large-scale swarms with limited sensing and processing capabilities.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 6237319in part by the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province under Grant KYCX230479.
文摘Formation control in multi-agent systems has become a critical area of interest due to its wide-ranging applications in robotics,autonomous transportation,and surveillance.While various studies have explored distributed cooperative control,this review focuses on the theoretical foundations and recent developments in formation control strategies.The paper categorizes and analyzes key formation types,including formation maintenance,group or cluster formation,bipartite formations,event-triggered formations,finite-time convergence,and constrained formations.A significant portion of the review addresses formation control under constrained dynamics,presenting both modelbased and model-free approaches that consider practical limitations such as actuator bounds,communication delays,and nonholonomic constraints.Additionally,the paper discusses emerging trends,including the integration of eventdriven mechanisms and AI-enhanced coordination strategies.Comparative evaluations highlight the trade-offs among various methodologies regarding scalability,robustness,and real-world feasibility.Practical implementations are reviewed across diverse platforms,and the review identifies the current achievements and unresolved challenges in the field.The paper concludes by outlining promising research directions,such as adaptive control for dynamic environments,energy-efficient coordination,and using learning-based control under uncertainty.This review synthesizes the current state of the art and provides a road map for future investigation,making it a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners aiming to advance formation control in multi-agent systems.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62073113,62003122,62303148)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(MCCSE2023A01,JZ2023HGTA0201,JZ2023HGQA0109)the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation(2308085QF204)
文摘Dear Editor,This letter considers the formation control of multiple mobile robot systems(MMRS)that only relies on the local observation information.A new distributed finite-time observer is proposed for MMRS under directed graph to estimate the relative information between each follower robot and the leader robot.Then the formation control problem is transformed into the tracking problem and a finite-time tracking controller is proposed based on the robot model feature.
基金supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2022YFB3303900in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 62103277 and 62025305。
文摘In this paper,the distributed optimal formation control problem of heterogeneous Euler–Lagrange multi-agent systems with generic formation constraints and inequality constraints is investigated.Based on the primal–dual dynamics and the adaptive control technique,a distributed optimal formation controller consists of a velocity reference signal generator and a velocity tracking controller is proposed.By using the optimality condition,the relationship between the equilibrium point of the closed-loop system and the optimal solution of the optimization problem is established.Then,by utilizing Lyapunov stability analysis,it is rigorously proved that the optimal formation is reached with the proposed controller.Lastly,simulation examples are provided to substantiate the theoretical results.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61803009)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(No.YWF-19-BJ-J-205)Aeronautical Science Foundation of China(No.20175851032)。
文摘The paper proposes a Virtual Target Guidance(VTG)-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC) scheme for formation control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First, a framework of distributed MPC scheme is designed in which each UAV only shares the information with its neighbors, and the obtained local Finite-Horizon Optimal Control Problem(FHOCP) can be solved by swarm intelligent optimization algorithm.Then, a VTG approach is developed and integrated into the distributed MPC scheme to achieve trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance.Further, an event-triggered mechanism is proposed to reduce the computational burden for UAV formation control, which takes into consideration the predictive state errors as well as the convergence of cost function.Numerical simulations show that the proposed VTG-based distributed MPC scheme is more computationally efficient to achieve formation control of multiple UAVs in comparison with the traditional distributed MPC method.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61374048)
文摘In this paper,the flight formation control problem of a group of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles（UAVs） with parametric uncertainties and external disturbances is studied.Unitquaternions are used to represent the attitudes of the quadrotor UAVs.Separating the model into a translational subsystem and a rotational subsystem,an intermediary control input is introduced to track a desired velocity and extract desired orientations.Then considering the internal parametric uncertainties and external disturbances of the quadrotor UAVs,the priori-bounded intermediary adaptive control input is designed for velocity tracking and formation keeping,by which the bounded control thrust and the desired orientation can be extracted.Thereafter,an adaptive control torque input is designed for the rotational subsystem to track the desired orientation.With the proposed control scheme,the desired velocity is tracked and a desired formation shape is built up.Global stability of the closed-loop system is proven via Lyapunov-based stability analysis.Numerical simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
文摘Formation control is a cooperative control concept in which multiple autonomous underwater mobile robots are deployed for a group motion and/or control mission. This paper presents a brief review on various cooperative search and formation control strategies for multiple autonomous underwater vehicles （AUV） based on literature reported till date. Various cooperative and formation control schemes for collecting huge amount of data based on formation regulation control and formation tracking control are discussed. To address the challenge of detecting AUV failure in the fleet, communication issues, collision and obstacle avoidance are also taken into attention. Stability analysis of the feasible formation is also presented. This paper may be intended to serve as a convenient reference for the further research on formation control of multiple underwater mobile robots.
基金sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61673327, 51606161, 11602209, 91441128)Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (No. 2016J06011)China Scholarship Council (No. 201606310153)
文摘This paper addresses a target-enclosing problem for multiple spacecraft systems by proposing a two-layer affine formation control strategy. Compared with the existing methods,the adopted two-layer network structure in this paper is generally directed, which is suitable for practical space missions. Firstly, distributed finite-time sliding-mode estimators and formation controllers in both layers are designed separately to improve the flexibility of the formation control system. By introducing the properties of affine transformation into formation control protocol design,the controllers can be used to track different time-varying target formation patterns. Besides, multilayer time-varying encirclements can be achieved with particular shapes to surround the moving target. In the sequel, by integrating adaptive neural networks and specialized artificial potential functions into backstepping controllers, the problems of uncertain Euler-Lagrange models, collision avoidance as well as formation reconfiguration are solved simultaneously. The stability of the proposed controllers is verified by the Lyapunov direct method. Finally, two simulation examples of triangle formation and more complex hexagon formation are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the theoretical results.
基金financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(grant no.2017YFC0602405)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant no.42030811)。
文摘Rare metals including Lithium(Li),Beryllium(Be),Rubidium(Rb),Cesium(Cs),Zirconium(Zr),Hafnium(Hf),Niobium(Nb),Tantalum(Ta),Tungsten(W)and Tin(Sn)are important critical mineral resources.In China,rare metal mineral deposits are spatially distributed mainly in the Altay and Southern Great Xingán Range regions in the Central Asian orogenic belt;in the Middle Qilian,South Qinling and East Qinling mountains regions in the Qilian-Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt;in the Western Sichuan and Bailongshan-Dahongliutan regions in the Kunlun-Songpan-Garze orogenic belt,and in the Northeastern Jiangxi,Northwestern Jiangxi,and Southern Hunan regions in South China.Major ore-forming epochs include Indosinian(mostly 200-240 Ma,in particular in western China)and the Yanshanian(mostly 120-160 Ma,in particular in South China).In addition,Bayan Obo,Inner Mongolia,northeastern China,with a complex formation history,hosts the largest REE and Nb deposits in China.There are six major rare metal mineral deposit types in China:Highly fractionated granite;Pegmatite;Alkaline granite;Carbonatite and alkaline rock;Volcanic;and Hydrothermal types.Two further types,namely the Leptynite type and Breccia pipe type,have recently been discovered in China,and are represented by the Yushishan Nb-Ta-(Zr-Hf-REE)and the Weilasituo Li-Rb-Sn-W-Zn-Pb deposits.Several most important controlling factors for rare metal mineral deposits are discussed,including geochemical behaviors and sources of the rare metals,highly evolved magmatic fractionation,and structural controls such as the metamorphic core complex setting,with a revised conceptual model for the latter.
基金Projects(61075065,60774045) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject supported by the Graduate Degree Thesis Innovation Foundation of Central South University,China
文摘Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of networks, which are aimed at ensuring that the concerned states of agents converge to a constant or time-varying reference state, new consensus tracking protocols with a constant and time-varying reference state are proposed, respectively. Particularly, by contrast with spanning tree, an improved condition of switching interaction topology is presented. And then, convergence analysis of two consensus tracking protocols is provided by Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, consensus tracking protocol with a time-varying reference state is extended to achieve the fbrmation control. By introducing formation structure set, each agent can gain its individual desired trajectory. Finally, several simulations are worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical results. The test results show that the states of agents can converge to a desired constant or time-varying reference state. In addition, by selecting appropriate structure set, agents can maintain the expected formation under random switching interaction topologies.
文摘This paper deals with the problem of distributed formation tracking control and obstacle avoidance of multivehicle systems(MVSs)in complex obstacle-laden environments.The MVS under consideration consists of a leader vehicle with an unknown control input and a group of follower vehicles,connected via a directed interaction topology,subject to simultaneous unknown heterogeneous nonlinearities and external disturbances.The central aim is to achieve effective and collisionfree formation tracking control for the nonlinear and uncertain MVS with obstacles encountered in formation maneuvering,while not demanding global information of the interaction topology.Toward this goal,a radial basis function neural network is used to model the unknown nonlinearity of vehicle dynamics in each vehicle and repulsive potentials are employed for obstacle avoidance.Furthermore,a scalable distributed adaptive formation tracking control protocol with a built-in obstacle avoidance mechanism is developed.It is proved that,with the proposed protocol,the resulting formation tracking errors are uniformly ultimately bounded and obstacle collision avoidance is guaranteed.Comprehensive simulation results are elaborated to substantiate the effectiveness and the promising collision avoidance performance of the proposed scalable adaptive formation control approach.
基金supported in part by the Foundation(No.2019-JCJQ-ZD-049)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61703134,62022060,62073234,61773278)+2 种基金The China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2019M650874)The Key R&D Program of Hebei Province(No.20310802D)the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province(Nos.F2019202369,F2018202279,F2019202363)。
文摘In this paper,periodic event-triggered formation control problems with collision avoidance are studied for leader–follower multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).Firstly,based on the Artificial Potential Field(APF)method,a novel sliding manifold is proposed for controller design,which can solve the problem of collision avoidance.Then,the event-triggered strategy is applied to the distributed formation control of multi-UAV systems,where the evaluation of the event condition is continuous.In addition,the exclusion of Zeno behavior can be guaranteed by the inter-event time between two successive trigger events have a positive lower bound.Next,a periodic event-triggered mechanism is developed for formation control based on the continuous eventtriggered mechanism.The periodic trigger mechanism does not need additional hardware circuits and sophisticated sensors,which can reduce the control cost.The stability of the control system is proved by the Lyapunov function method.Finally,some numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.
基金supported and funded by the CC&BT Division of the Department of Electronics & Information Technology,Govt,of India(23011/22/2013-R&DIN CC&BT)
文摘In this paper a stable formation control law that simultaneously ensures collision avoidance has been proposed.It is assumed that the communication graph is undirected and connected.The proposed formation control law is a combination of the consensus term and the collision avoidance term(CAT).The first order consensus term is derived for the proposed model,while ensuring the Lyapunov stability.The consensus term creates and maintains the desired formation shape,while the CAT avoids the collision.During the collision avoidance,the potential function based CAT makes the agents repel from each other.This unrestricted repelling magnitude cannot ensure the graph connectivity at the time of collision avoidance.Hence we have proposed a formation control law,which ensures this connectivity even during the collision avoidance.This is achieved by the proposed novel adaptive potential function.The potential function adapts itself,with the online tuning of the critical variable associated with it.The tuning has been done based on the lower bound of the critical variable,which is derived from the proposed connectivity property.The efficacy of the proposed scheme has been validated using simulations done based on formations of six and thirty-two agents respectively.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2011AA040103)the Research Foundationof Shanghai Institute of Technology,China(Grant No.B504)
文摘Formation control and obstacle avoidance for multi-agent systems have attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the problems of formation control and obstacle avoidance are investigated by means of a consensus algorithm. A novel distributed control model is proposed for the multi-agent system to form the anticipated formation as well as achieve obstacle avoidance. Based on the consensus algorithm, a distributed control function consisting of three terms （formation control term, velocity matching term, and obstacle avoidance term） is presented. By establishing a novel formation control matrix, a formation control term is constructed such that the agents can converge to consensus and reach the anticipated formation. A new obstacle avoidance function is developed by using the modified potential field approach to make sure that obstacle avoidance can be achieved whether the obstacle is in a dynamic state or a stationary state. A velocity matching term is also put forward to guarantee that the velocities of all agents converge to the same value. Furthermore, stability of the control model is proven. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control.
文摘While different species in nature have safely solved the problem of navigation in a dynamic environment, this remains a challenging task for researchers around the world. The paper addresses the problem of autonomous navigation in an unknown dynamic environment for a single and a group of three wheeled omnidirectional mobile robots(TWOMRs). The robot has to track a dynamic target while avoiding dynamic obstacles and dynamic walls in an unknown and very dense environment. It adopts a behavior-based controller that consists of four behaviors: "target tracking", "obstacle avoidance", "dynamic wall following" and "avoid robots". The paper considers the problem of kinematic saturation. In addition, it introduces a strategy for predicting the velocity of dynamic obstacles based on two successive measurements of the ultrasonic sensors to calculate the velocity of the obstacle expressed in the sensor frame. Furthermore, the paper proposes a strategy to deal with dynamic walls even when they have U-like or V-like shapes. The approach can also deal with the formation control of a group of robots based on the leader-follower structure and the behavior-based control, where the robots have to get together and maintain a given formation while navigating toward the target, avoiding obstacles and walls in a dynamic environment. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is demonstrated via simulation.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61573077,U1808205)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFA0700300)
文摘In this paper,we investigate formation tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)with model parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.The external disturbances due to the wind,waves,and ocean currents are combined with the model parameter uncertainties as a compound disturbance.Then a disturbance observer(DO)is introduced to estimate the compound disturbance,which can be achieved within a finite time independent of the initial estimation error.Based on a DO,a novel fixed-time sliding control scheme is developed,by which the follower vehicle can track the leader vehicle with all the states globally stabilized within a given settling time.The effectiveness and performance of the method are demonstrated by numerical simulations.
基金partially supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China(Grant No.51309062)
文摘The formation control problem for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles(USVs) is addressed by a distributed strategy based on virtual leader strategy. The control system takes account of disturbance induced by external environment. With the coordinate transformation, the advantage of the proposed scheme is that the control point can be any point of the ship instead of the center of gravity. By introducing bio-inspired model, the formation control problem is addressed with backstepping method. This avoids complicated computation, simplifies the control law,and smoothes the input signals. The system uniform ultimate boundness is proven by Lyapunov stability theory with Young inequality. Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness and robust of the proposed controller.
基金Project(NS2013091)supported by the Basis Research Fund of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,China
文摘Path planning and formation structure forming are two of the most important problems for autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs) to collaborate with each other.In this work,a dynamic formation model was proposed,in which several algorithms were developed for the complex underwater environment.Dimension changeable particle swarm algorithm was used to find an optimized path by dynamically adjusting the number and the distribution of the path nodes.Position relationship based obstacle avoidance algorithm was designed to detour along the edges of obstacles.Virtual potential point based formation-keeping algorithm was employed by incorporating dynamic strategies which were decided by the current states of the formation.The virtual potential point was used to keep the formation structure when the AUV or the formation was deviated.Simulation results show that an optimal path can be dynamically planned with fewer path nodes and smaller fitness,even with a concave obstacle.It has been also proven that different formation-keeping strategies can be adaptively selected and the formation can change its structure in a narrow area and restore back after passing the obstacle.
文摘The main contribution of this paper is the design of an event-triggered formation control for leader-following consensus in second-order multi-agent systems(MASs)under communication faults.All the agents must follow the trajectories of a virtual leader despite communication faults considered as smooth time-varying delays dependent on the distance between the agents.Linear matrix inequalities(LMIs)-based conditions are obtained to synthesize a controller gain that guarantees stability of the synchronization error.Based on the closed-loop system,an event-triggered mechanism is designed to reduce the control law update and information exchange in order to reduce energy consumption.The proposed approach is implemented in a real platform of a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)under communication faults.A comparison between a state-of-the-art technique and the proposed technique has been provided,demonstrating the performance improvement brought by the proposed approach.
