Virtual Leader and Distance-Based Formation Control With Funnel Constraints

In this work, we pursue the problem of distributed distance-based formation control with prescribed transient and steady-state behavior under connectivity and collision avoidance constraints. In addition to the distance-based formation, a subset of agents is enforced to reach a desired distance from a dynamic virtual leader with bounded velocity under prescribed transient and steady-state constraints while preserving connectivity with the virtual leader and a desired safety distance. We show that the aforementioned objectives can be ensured when the communication graph is an undirected tree and a single agent has access to the virtual leader's state information. Under these conditions, we propose a model-free control law for known nonlinear systems as also an adaptive controller when the nonlinear dynamics of the agents are considered unknown and approximated using neural networks. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller both for known and unknown dynamics.