Cooperative pointing control of multi-agent systems with switching topologies via distributed error estimation

Cui-Li Jin; Yuhai Yang; Bing Tan; Jinlong Yuan; Cui-Li Jin; Yuhai Yang; Bing Tan; Jinlong Yuan

doi:10.3934/era.2026312

Electronic Research Archive

2026, Volume 34, Issue 10: 7222-7243. doi: 10.3934/era.2026312

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Cooperative pointing control of multi-agent systems with switching topologies via distributed error estimation

1.
College of Marine Electrical Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
2.
Dalian Kerun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd, Dalian 116023, China
3.
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang 473061, China
4.
School of Science, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China

Received: 06 July 2026 Revised: 07 August 2026 Accepted: 10 August 2026 Published: 18 August 2026

This paper proposes a distributed relative-position-based cooperative pointing control scheme for stationary planar multi-agent systems toward a stationary target under switching topologies. First, the proposed scheme only requires the leaders' orientation angles and relative position measurements, without relying on the agents' states in a common global coordinate frame. Then, the cooperative control problem is decoupled into cooperative target localization and local pointing control. In the proposed scheme, the cooperative target localization problem is modeled as a distributed relative position estimation system, in which the system dynamics are determined by the switching topologies and the projection matrices induced by the leaders' orientation angles. Under minimal information conditions, sufficient conditions are established to ensure the convergence of the proposed scheme by developing a novel error estimator and multiple Lyapunov functions. As a result, the generated reference orientations converge to the desired ones, and the local pointing controllers track them asymptotically. Finally, numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
- multi-agent systems,
- switching topologies,
- cooperative control,
- pointing control,
- distributed estimation
Citation: Cui-Li Jin, Yuhai Yang, Bing Tan, Jinlong Yuan. Cooperative pointing control of multi-agent systems with switching topologies via distributed error estimation[J]. Electronic Research Archive, 2026, 34(10): 7222-7243. doi: 10.3934/era.2026312

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Abstract

This paper proposes a distributed relative-position-based cooperative pointing control scheme for stationary planar multi-agent systems toward a stationary target under switching topologies. First, the proposed scheme only requires the leaders' orientation angles and relative position measurements, without relying on the agents' states in a common global coordinate frame. Then, the cooperative control problem is decoupled into cooperative target localization and local pointing control. In the proposed scheme, the cooperative target localization problem is modeled as a distributed relative position estimation system, in which the system dynamics are determined by the switching topologies and the projection matrices induced by the leaders' orientation angles. Under minimal information conditions, sufficient conditions are established to ensure the convergence of the proposed scheme by developing a novel error estimator and multiple Lyapunov functions. As a result, the generated reference orientations converge to the desired ones, and the local pointing controllers track them asymptotically. Finally, numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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