Controlled collective motion for trajectory tracking

This paper extends previous work on oscillator models to meet the needs of multiagent applications in which the motion of the collective centroid of the group must be dynamic. Individual agents are modeled as unit speed planar kinematic unicycles. A steering control law is derived for each individual so that the velocity of the collective centroid matches a reference velocity, provided the reference speed is less than one. A framework for steering controls is presented such that the unicycles stay near the collective centroid even though the centroid is non-static. Finally, an outer loop controller is proposed to allow tracking of a target vehicle. Simulation results are shown to support analysis