Distributed velocity observer based formation control for multi-agent systems

This paper is concerned with a leader-following formation problem for second-order continuous-time multi-agent systems. In view of the time-varying interaction between agents, a switching topology strategy is proposed to describe the relationship of agents. In addition, distributed observers are designed for agents, under the common assumption that the velocity of agents cannot be measured. By using Lyapunov stability theory, some sufficient conditions are obtained to prove the system stability. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to show the validity of the results.