H∞ control of distributed multi-agent formation systems with Toeplitz-based consensus algorithms

The problem of multi-agent formation control with H_∞ robustness incorporated is addressed. A distributed control architecture is proposed for the formation system. The architecture consists of three layers where the control algorithms are divided into two parts. One of them is the cooperative part with an information flow law that endows the overall system with cooperative behaviors. Studies on the information flow law focus on discrete consensus algorithms based on the tridiagonal toeplitz matrix. The other part is the stabilization part with control law that robots depend on to maintain the formation while moving. Upon the proposed structure, a multiagent formation system is modeled as a spatially interconnected system and spatially distributed controllers that are robust to external disturbances are developed. The effectiveness of the proposed architecture, as well as the distributed controllers, is verified by a group of wheeled robots.