Flocking Control of Groups of Mobile Autonomous Agents Via Local Feedback

This paper considers a group of mobile autonomous agents moving in Euclidean space with point mass dynamics. We introduce a set of coordination control laws that enable the group to generate the desired stable flocking motion. The control laws are a combination of attractive/repulsive and alignment forces. By using the control laws, all agent velocities asymptotically approach the desired velocity, collisions can be avoided between agents, and the final tight formation minimizes all agent potentials. Moreover, we prove that the velocity of the center of mass (CoM) either is equal to the desired velocity or exponentially converges to it. Finally, for the case that not all agents know the desired final velocity, we show that the desired flocking motion can still be guaranteed