Formation control of mobile robots with input constraints: An elliptic approximation approach

This paper considers the problem of formation control for mobile robots which are subject to input constraints. The control strategy based on virtual robot tracking is proposed, which leads to a compact controller form in terms of two feedback parameters by Lyapunov method. The introduced elliptic approximation of input constraints brings much convenience to obtain suitable feedback parameters. It is show that the presented sufficient condition guarantees the existence of feasible feedback parameters. Moreover, guidelines for the selection of feedback parameters are provided with geometric analysis. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.