Collective circular motion of multi-vehicle systems

This paper addresses a collective motion problem for a multi-agent system composed of nonholonomic vehicles. The aim of the vehicles is to achieve circular motion around a virtual reference beacon. A control law is proposed, which guarantees global asymptotic stability of the circular motion with a prescribed direction of rotation, in the case of a single vehicle. Equilibrium configurations of the multi-vehicle system are studied and sufficient conditions for their local stability are given, in terms of the control law design parameters. Practical issues related to sensory limitations are taken into account. The transient behavior of the multi-vehicle system is analyzed via numerical simulations.