Rigid Formation Keeping and Formation Reconfiguration of Multi-Agent Systems

A motion planning algorithm is presented for formation control of coordinating multi agents engaged in rigid formation keeping and formation reconfiguration. The multi agent system is separated into geometrically equivalent subsystems for distributed control. The proposed motion planning algorithm generates reference trajectories for each of these subsystems in real-time for online, distributed and autonomous control. Deriving the constrained kinematics eliminates the need for nonlinear programming to account for the system constraints, making the approach amenable to real-time control. A control strategy accounts for actuator/operating constraints to give dynamically feasible reference trajectories. Explicit consideration of actuator and operating limitations and nonholonomic constraints in the design of the reference trajectories, thereby addressing the important issue of dynamic feasibility, is one of the main contributions of the proposed approach. The motion planning algorithm is verified through simulations for a team of multi-agents moving in and switching between formations in a scouting scenario.