Single-Agent Indirect Herding of Multiple Targets using Metric Temporal Logic Switching

This paper focuses on the single-agent indirect herding problem where a herder agent is tasked with regulating a group of target agents to a desired goal state. To achieve this goal, the herder must switch between controlling different targets, resulting in a switched dynamical system. Lyapunov-based switched system analysis methods are used to develop sufficient dwell-time conditions. These dwell-time conditions are then encoded into Metric Temporal Logic (MTL) specifications that constitute the constraints in a switched nonlinear Model Predictive Control (MPC) problem that is formulated to synthesize a desired switching protocol. The synthesized switching protocol ensures the herding objective is achieved while simultaneously satisfying the dwell-time MTL specifications.