A Graph Laplacian Approach to Coordinate-Free Formation Stabilization for Directed Networks

This paper concentrates on coordinate-free formation control for directed networks, for which the dynamic motion of each agent is assumed to be governed only by a local control. We develop a graph Laplacian approach to solve the global and exponential formation stabilization problem using merely relative position measurements between neighbors. First, to capture the sensing and control architectures that are needed to maintain the shape of a formation, a necessary and sufficient topological condition is proposed. Second, a Laplacian-based control law is developed for the stabilization problem of a group of mobile agents to a desired formation shape under both fixed and switching topologies due to temporal node failures. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate that our Laplacian-based formation control strategy is inherently fault-tolerant and robust to node failures.