Distributed network-based formation control

This article investigates a formation control problem of mobile robots. Two main issues of the formation control problem are addressed; one is the implementation of distributed formation control and another is the analysis of effect of network communication on the closed-loop systems. The distributed formation control is obtained by modelling the formation control problem as a linear-quadratic Nash differential game through the use of graph theory. The obtained distributed controller is a state feedback controller that requires both local state and neighbour robot states. As the neighbour robot states are obtained via networks, the network performance affects the control system. Network-induced delay is considered in this article. The stability analysis of the proposed distributed formation controller under network-induced delay is given. A compensation scheme for network-induced delay is proposed and analysed. Mobile robots with double integrator dynamics are used in the formation control simulation. Simulation results are provided to justify the models and solutions.