Formation Control with Dynamic Non-Autonomous Leader Using Sampled-Data Event-Triggered Communication

Abstract

This paper addresses the distributed formation tracking control for general linear multi-agent systems with a dynamic non-autonomous leader in a sampled-data setting. First, a novel locally-computable state-estimate-based event-generator is proposed for each follower agent to regulate and reduce unnecessary data transmissions. Second, a distributed formation protocol is proposed that only uses the triggered sampled information such that the formation tracking problem can be formulated as a stability analysis problem of the closed-loop formation error dynamics. Sufficient conditions in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) that guarantee the coexistence of a valid formation controller and an event-triggered communication mechanism are then derived using Lyapunov-based stability analysis methods. Finally, numerical simulations for multiple mobile robots formations were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method.