Control of triangle formations with a mix of angle and distance constraints

A distributed control law for triangular formation control with a mixture of bearing and range measurements and relative pair-wise inter-agent angle constraints and a single range constraint is introduced. The control law is weak in the sense that two agents are free to choose their own heading within a relatively large range of values. Indeed, the agents can determine their heading independently at run-time given any criteria they desire as long as certain relaxed conditions are met. A convergence result is established that ensures the desired formation configuration is asymptotically stable. Illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the claims.