Globally asymptotically stable distributed control for distance and bearing based multi-agent formations

We present a continuous, distributed control scheme for formation control of multi-agent systems based on local position measurements. The desired formation is defined in terms of both inter-agent distances and bearing angles. If the sensing topology among agents satisfy certain sufficient conditions, it is shown that the control globally stabilizes the agents to any feasible desired formation. Simulations for up to 32 agents starting from random positions on the plane verifies that agents can successfully converge to the desired formation with no knowledge of the global coordinate frame.