“1-N” Leader-Follower Formation Control of Multiple Agents Based on Bearing-Only Observation

Abstract

A formation control method is proposed for multiple agents of “1” leader and “N” follower where the following N-agents (as called followers) can only observe the bearing information of the leading 1-agent (as called the leader). It is proven that bearing-only observation meets the observability condition required for the “1-N” leader-follower formation system. The unscented Kalman filter is employed to estimate the relative position of the leader, based on which the input-output feedback control law is executed to control the real-time movement of the followers so that the “1-N” leader-followers formation is properly maintained. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.