This paper systematically studies consensus of linear multi-agent systems (MASs) on directed graphs through adaptive event-triggered control. It presents innovative adaptive event-triggered state-feedback protocols with novel composite event-triggering conditions. Two specific designs in terms of different event-triggering conditions and laws of adaption are first discussed for linear MASs on strongly connected directed graphs, which are then extended to general directed graphs that contain a spanning tree. Moreover, another adaptive event-triggered protocol is proposed for solving leader-follower consensus that tracks a leader of a bounded control input. The protocols inherit the merits of both adaptive control and event-triggered control: the protocols can be implemented in a fully distributed way, since the Laplacian is avoided in design, and each agent only needs to know the relative information between neighbors at discrete instants determined by event-triggering conditions. Compared with the existing related results, the proposed protocols are applicable for linear MASs on general directed graphs, and moreover the time-dependent term in the event-triggering conditions is allo

This paper studies bearing-based formation control of a group of autonomous agents with the leader-first follower (LFF) structure in an arbitrary dimensional space. Firstly, the bearing-based Henneberg construction and some properties of the LFF formation are introduced. Then, we propose and analyze bearing-only control laws which almost globally stabilize LFF formations to a target formation. Further strategies to rotate and to rescale the target formation are also discussed. Finally, simulation results are provided to support the analysis.

This paper proposes a general approach to design convergent coordination control laws for multi-agent systems subject to motion constraints. The main contribution of this paper is to prove in a constructive way that a gradient-decent coordination control law designed for single integrators can be easily modified to adapt for various motion constraints such as nonholonomic dynamics, linear/angular velocity saturation, and other path constraints while preserving the convergence of the entire multi-agent system. The proposed approach is applicable to a wide range of coordination tasks such as rendezvous and formation control in two and three dimensions. As a special application, the proposed approach solves the problem of distance-based formation control subject to nonholonomic and velocity saturation constraints.

In this paper, we develop some new event-triggered algorithms for achieving distributed consensus for a multiagent system that guarantees fully Zeno-free triggerings for all the agents. In the proposed framework, each agent updates its control input only at its own triggering instants by using local measurements (i.e., relative states) with respect to neighboring agents, and such local measurements can be done in a local coordinate frame. For all agents, a positive Lp signal function is embedded in the event detector functions, which aims to avoid the possible comparison of an event error term to a zero threshold that may happen in a zero-crossing scenario. We further propose a Zeno-free self-triggered algorithm to achieve multiagent consensus, which enables discrete-time measurements and thus avoids continuous measurements between the neighboring agents. We also show that the proposed event-based consensus algorithms guarantee less frequent triggered events in a bounded time interval compared to the conventional algorithm without Lp signals. Simulations and comparisons are provided to validate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed event-based consensus schemes.

This paper discusses the problem of controlling formation shapes for a group of nonholonomic unicycle-type agents with constant speeds. The control input is designed to steer their orientations and the aim is to achieve a desired formation configuration for all the agents subject to constant-speed constraints. The circular motion center is adopted as a virtual position for each agent to define the desired formation shape. We consider several different formation design approaches based on different formation specifications under different interaction graphs. In particular, two different formation design approaches, namely, a displacement-based approach and a distance-based approach, are discussed in detail to coordinate constant-speed agents in achieving a desired formation shape with stable circular motions via limited interactions. The communication and measurement requirements for each approach are also discussed. Furthermore, we propose a combined controller to stabilize a formation shape and synchronize the heading of each agent simultaneously. The effectiveness of the proposed formation control schemes is validated by both numerical simulations and real experiments with actual unmanned fixed-wing aircraft.

In this paper, we study rigid formation control systems modelled by double integrators. Two kinds of double-integrator formation systems are considered, namely formation stabilisation systems and flocking control systems. Novel observations on the measurement requirement, the null space and eigenvalues of the system Jacobian matrix will be provided, which reveal important properties of system dynamics and the associated convergence results. We also establish some new links between single-integrator formation systems and double-integrator formation systems via a parameterised Hamiltonian system, which, in addition, provide novel stability criteria for different equilibria in double-integrator formation systems by using available results in single-integrator formation systems.