Flocking control of a mobile sensor network to track and observe a moving target

This paper presents a new approach to flocking control of a mobile sensor network to track a moving target. In our approach, the center of mass (CoM) of positions and velocities of all mobile sensors in the network (Single-CoM) or the center of mass of position and velocity of each sensor and its neighbors (Multi-CoM) is controlled to track and observe a moving target. In addition, we prove that the CoM of position and velocity exponentially converges to the moving target in free space. Based on this approach, the target is kept at the center of the sensor network. This is of great advantage for sensors to track and observe the target for recognition or identification purposes. In addition, collision-free and velocity matching among mobile sensors are guaranteed in the whole process of the target tracking. We also investigate the stability of our algorithms. The numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the proposed approach.