Hybrid Control of Multiagent Systems With Contingent Temporal Tasks and Prescribed Formation Constraints

In this paper, we present a distributed hybrid control strategy for multiagent systems with contingent temporal tasks and prescribed formation constraints. Each agent is assigned a local task given as a linear temporal logic formula. In addition, two commonly seen kinds of cooperative robotic tasks, namely, service and formation, are requested and exchanged among the agents in real time. The service request is a short-term task provided by one agent to another. On the other hand, the formation request is a relative deployment requirement with predefined transient response imposed by an associated performance function. The proposed hybrid control strategy consists of four major components: 1) the contingent requests handling module; 2) the real-time events monitoring module; 3) the local discrete plan synthesis module; and 4) the continuous control switching module, and it is shown that all local tasks and contingent service/formation requests are fulfilled. Finally, a simulated paradigm demonstrates the proposed control strategy.