Formation-Containment Control for Nonholonomic Multi-Agent Systems with a Desired Trajectory Constraint

This paper addresses the time-varying formation-containment (FC) problem for nonholonomic multi-agent systems with a desired trajectory constraint, where only the leaders can acquire information about the desired trajectory. Input the fixed time-varying formation template to the leader and start executing, this process also needs to track the desired trajectory, and the follower needs to converge to the convex hull that the leader crosses. Firstly, the dynamic models of nonholonomic systems are linearized to second-order dynamics. Then, based on the desired trajectory and formation template, the FC control protocols are proposed. Sufficient conditions to achieve FC are introduced and an algorithm is proposed to resolve the control parameters by solving an algebraic Riccati equation. The system is demonstrated to achieve FC, with the average position and velocity of the leaders converging asymptotically to the desired trajectory. Finally, the theoretical achievements are verified in simulations by a multi-agent system composed of virtual human individuals.