Decoupled-dynamics distributed control for strings of nonlinear autonomous agents

We introduce a novel distributed control architecture for a class of nonlinear dynamical agents moving in the “string” formation, while guaranteeing trajectory tracking and collision avoidance. Each autonomous agent uses information and relative measurements only with respect to its predecessor in the string. The performance of the scheme is entirely scalable with respect to the number of agents in formation. The scalability is a consequence of the “decoupling” of a certain bounded approximation of the closed-loop equations, entailing that individual, local analyses of the closed-loops stability at each agent will in turn guarantee the aggregated stability of the entire formation. An efficient, practical method for compensating communications induced delays is also presented.