Leader-formation navigation using dynamic formation pattern

Formation navigation is an interesting topic in robotic community. In this paper, we focus on two aspects of formation navigation, leader-formation keeping and obstacle avoidance. A local control strategy based on adaptive NN control with robust term and a general obstacle avoidance strategy are proposed. It is proved that if formation pattern is smooth continuous, even interaction topology is dynamic, the robots using the local control strategy must form the formation determined by formation pattern. Applying dynamic formation pattern, a simulation illustrates a formation navigation within an obstacle field where there exist two kinds of obstacles