Inverse Agreement Protocols With Application to Distributed Multi-Agent Dispersion

We propose a distributed inverse agreement control law for multiple kinematic agents that forces the team members to disperse in the workspace. Both the cases of an unbounded and a circular, bounded workspace are considered. In the first case, we show that the closed-loop system reaches a configuration in which the minimum distance between any pair of agents is larger than a specific lower bound. It is proved that this lower bound coincides with the agents' sensing radius. In the case of a bounded circular workspace, the control law is redefined to force the agents to remain within the workspace boundary. Moreover the proposed control design guarantees collision avoidance between the team members in all cases. The results are supported through relevant computer simulations.