An iterative learning approach to formation control of multi-agent systems

In this paper, an efficient framework is proposed to the formation control problem of multiple agents with unknown nonlinear dynamics, by means of the iterative learning approach. In particular, a distributed D-type iterative learning scheme is developed for the multi-agent system with switching topology, whose switching time and sequence are allowed to be varied at different iterations according to the actual trajectories of agents, and a sufficient condition is derived to ensure that the desired formation can be always preserved from the initial starting location to the final one after some iterations. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.