Translation control of a fleet circular formation of AUVs under finite communication range

This work proposes a control algorithm to stabilize a circular formation of AUVs tracking a time-varying center. We also consider the problem of uniform distribution of all the agents along the circle from two approaches: all-to-all and limited communication. We tackle with this communication constraint using a cooperative control strategy which includes the Laplacian matrix of the communication graph (fixed or distance-dependent). The system was implemented in computer simulation, accessible though Web.