Distributed rotating formation control of multi-agent systems

This paper investigates collective rotating motions of second-order multi-agent systems. We first consider rotating consensus problems. Using local relative information, we propose a protocol and give a necessary and sufficient condition for rotating consensus of the system. Then, we consider rotating formation control problems. With the help of Lyapunov theory for complex systems, we propose rotating formation protocols and give sufficient conditions to make all agents move with a specific structure in a circular channel. Finally, simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.