Leader–Follower Flocking: Algorithms and Experiments

In this paper, we investigate a leader-follower flocking system where few members are group leaders who have global knowledge (a desired trajectory), while majority of the members are group followers who can communicate with neighbors but do not have global knowledge. The followers do not even know who the leaders are in the group. The flocking group is able to track a specific trajectory led by group leaders. In this system, all group members estimate the position of flocking center by using a consensus algorithm via local communication in order to keep the flocking group connected. Based on the estimated position of flocking center, a leader-follower flocking algorithm is proposed, and its stability is proved. A group of real robots "wifibots"are used to test the feasibility of the algorithm. Experiments show that this leader-follower flocking system can track the desired trajectory led by group leaders. © 2009 IEEE.