Observer-based finite-time tracking control for formations of mobile robots

This paper considers the finite-time control design for the nonholonomic mobile robots to construct leader-following formation. In the formation, only the pose of the leader robot can be obtained by the follower. Firstly, the leader-following formation is transformed into a special trajectory tracking problem and a finite-time observer is designed to estimate the leader´s dynamics. Then, neural network-based finite-time control laws are designed for the following robot to track the leader robot in the desired separation and bearing in finite time. Lyapunov-based theory analysis and simulation results are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the designed finite-time observer and the formation control law.