Collisionless and decentralized formation control for strings

Young-Pil Choi; Dante Kalise; Andrés A. Peters; Young-Pil Choi; Dante Kalise; Andrés A. Peters

doi:10.3934/nhm.2025036

Networks and Heterogeneous Media

2025, Volume 20, Issue 3: 844-867. doi: 10.3934/nhm.2025036

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Research article

Collisionless and decentralized formation control for strings

1.
Department of Mathematics, Yonsei University, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
2.
Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom
3.
Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 7941169, Chile

Received: 31 March 2025 Revised: 02 July 2025 Accepted: 09 July 2025 Published: 18 July 2025

A decentralized feedback controller for multi-agent systems, inspired by vehicle platooning, is proposed. The closed loop resulting from the decentralized control action has three distinctive features: The generation of collision-free trajectories, flocking of the system towards a consensus state in velocity, and asymptotic convergence to a prescribed pattern of distances between agents. For each feature, a rigorous dynamical analysis is provided, yielding a characterization of the set of parameters and initial configurations where collision avoidance, flocking, and pattern formation are guaranteed. Numerical tests assess the theoretical results presented.
- multi-agent systems,
- decentralised feedback control,
- formation control,
- collision-avoidance control
Citation: Young-Pil Choi, Dante Kalise, Andrés A. Peters. Collisionless and decentralized formation control for strings[J]. Networks and Heterogeneous Media, 2025, 20(3): 844-867. doi: 10.3934/nhm.2025036

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Abstract

A decentralized feedback controller for multi-agent systems, inspired by vehicle platooning, is proposed. The closed loop resulting from the decentralized control action has three distinctive features: The generation of collision-free trajectories, flocking of the system towards a consensus state in velocity, and asymptotic convergence to a prescribed pattern of distances between agents. For each feature, a rigorous dynamical analysis is provided, yielding a characterization of the set of parameters and initial configurations where collision avoidance, flocking, and pattern formation are guaranteed. Numerical tests assess the theoretical results presented.

References

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