Time-Varying Distance-Constrained Formation Maneuver Control With Guaranteed Prescribed Performance for Mobile Agents

This paper proposes a distributed control design methodology to stabilize the desired formation shape in a multi-agent system, while assuring two network constraints simultaneously, namely, inter-agent collision avoidance and connectivity preservation. Contrary to a point mass assumption, we consider that each agent is characterized by a circular disk of the same radii. Collision avoidance and connectivity preservation in the group are handled by applying time-varying constraints on the inter-center distances among neighboring agents. The concept of asymmetric time-varying barrier Lyapunov function is exploited to derive the stabilizing distributed control law. The analytical bounds on the formation errors and inter-agent distances are obtained. Finally, a comparison with the quadratic Lyapunov function-based control design approach is provided.