Virtual structure based target-enclosing strategies for nonholonomic agents

In this paper, we discuss a target-enclosing problem for a group of multiple nonholonomic agents in a plane. The proposed strategies guarantee that multiple agentspsila coordination finally results in a circular formation enclosing the target-object which moves in the plane. Firstly, virtual agents for the feedback linearization of the real nonholonomic agents are introduced. Secondly, we propose the target-enclosing control laws based on the consensus algorithm to the virtual agents. Algebraic graph theory and consensus algorithm are employed to prove convergence and stability of the enclosing problem. Finally, experiments are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control laws.