Adaptive control schemes for mobile robot formations with triangularised structures

The study investigates the leader-follower formation control problem, for which the objective is to control a group of robots such that they move as a rigid formation with a prescribed constant velocity. It is assumed in the study that there are two leader robots, who are the only robots in the group that are informed about the prescribed velocity. All the other robots are followers and do not have the reference velocity information. The authors take the robotic formation as coupled triangular sub-formations and develop adaptive control strategies to enable each follower robot to attain and maintain a stable triangular formation with respect to its two leading neighbours. As a result, the whole group forms a rigid formation. Analyses on convergence and stability properties of equilibrium formations are provided, which show that the desired formation is asymptotically stable. Finally, simulations are given to illustrate our results.