Information structures to secure control of rigid formations with leader-follower architecture

This paper is concerned with rigid formations of mobile autonomous agents that have leader-follower architecture. In a previous paper, Baillieul and Suri gave a proposition as a necessary condition for stable rigidity. They also gave a separate theorem as a sufficient condition for stable rigidity. This paper suggests an approach to analyze rigid formations that have leader-follower architecture. It proves that the third condition in the proposition given by Baillieul and Suri is redundant, and it proves that this proposition is a necessary and sufficient condition for stable rigidity. Simulation results are also presented to illustrate rigidity.