Balanced containment control and cooperative timing of a multi-agent system

A multi-agent system is considered that is tasked with the objective of approaching a predetermined target from a desired region to minimize detection, and then simultaneously converging at the target. Only a subset of agents is informed of the bearing to the target and the desired common arrival time; other agents only rely on local communication with neighboring agents for coordination. A balanced containment control is achieved that restricts the motion of the group within a desired region (i.e., a circular sector) while evenly spacing the agents´ orientations. To enable simultaneous arrival, a consensus algorithm is designed for agents to coordinate their arrival time by achieving consensus with the informed agents. Only local feedback (i.e., orientation information and estimated arrival time) from neighboring agents is used to navigate the group, and no position information (either absolute or relative position between agents) is required, allowing the multi-agent system to operate in a GPS denied area. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the developed approach.