Flocking of multi-agent dynamical systems based on pseudo-leader mechanism

Flocking behavior of multiple agents can be widely observed in nature such as schooling fish and flocking birds. Recent literature has proposed the possibility that flocking can be achieved even with only a small fraction of informed agents with the desired position and velocity. However, it is still a challenging problem to determine which agents should be informed or have the ability to detect the desired information. This paper aims to address this problem. By combining the ideas of virtual force and pseudo-leader mechanism, where a pseudo-leader represents an informed agent who can detect the desired information, we propose a scheme for choosing pseudo-leaders in a multi-agent group, which can be applied to an unconnected or switching neighbor graph. Numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the methods presented in this paper.