Virtual Leader-based Safe Formation-Switching Control for Dense Environments

Maintaining formation integrity is a significant challenge for a multi-agent system while navigating in cluttered environments. This paper presents a multi-agent formation control, integrating a virtual leader strategy with formation switching (FS) and Safe Artificial Potential Field (SAPF) control. Our goal is to navigate an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) formation collision-free around obstacles allowing smooth transitions among three formations based on the available space. Simulation results show that our FS-SAPF framework achieves a higher success rate by effectively handling local minima and reducing oscillations than traditional Artificial Potential Field (APF) approaches. Our FS-SAPF maintains a larger minimum distance between agents and obstacles, thus enhancing safety in complex environments.