Distributed tracking and connectivity maintenance with a varying velocity leader

This paper investigates a distributed tracking problem for multi-agent systems with a varying-velocity leader. The leader modeled by a double integrator can only be perceived by followers located within a sensing distance. The objective is to drive the followers with bounded control law to maintain connectivity, avoid collision and further track the leader, with no need of acceleration measurements. Two cases are considered: the acceleration of the leader is bounded; and the acceleration has a linear form. In the first case, the relative velocities of neighbors are integrated and transmitted as a new variable to account for the uncertain time-varying acceleration. In the second case, two distributed estimators are added for the leader's position and velocity. Simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed control laws.