A Switched System Dwell-Time Update Mechanism for Path Following With Intermittent State Feedback Constraints

This article focuses on a class of problems where a switched system approach is used to model intermittencies in state feedback. Specifically, a single-agent with nonlinear dynamics is tasked with following a desired path that lies in a feedback-denied region where state feedback is unavailable. As a result, the agent must use open-loop state estimates (dead-reckon) to navigate along the desired path while periodically returning to a known feedback region where the accumulated dead-reckoning errors are regulated. A dwell-time update mechanism is developed that leverages intermittent data measurements to generate a relaxed dwell-time condition in comparison to previous literature. The updated dwell-time conditions are used to plan the duration spent following the desired path before returning to the feedback region to acquire state feedback. A Lyapunov-based switched system dwell-time analysis is used to show the state tracking error is uniformly ultimately bounded to a prescribed error threshold that also guarantees re-entry of the agent to the feedback region. Comparative numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the developed method.