Modeling and control through leadership of a refined flocking system

A new refined flocking model that includes self-propelling, friction, attraction and repulsion, and alignment features is presented. This model takes into account various behavioral phenomena observed in biological and social systems. In addition, the presence of a leader is included in the system in order to develop a control strategy for the flocking model to accomplish desired objectives. Specifically, a model predictive control scheme is proposed that requires the solution of a sequence of open-loop optimality systems. An accurate Runge-Kutta scheme to discretize the optimality systems and a nonlinear conjugate gradient solver are implemented and discussed. Numerical experiments are performed that investigate the properties of the refined flocking model and demonstrate the ability of the control strategy to drive the flocking system to attain a desired target configuration and to follow a given trajectory.