Flocking and Obstacle Avoidance for Multi-agent Based on Potential Function

In this paper, we propose an effective control algorithm based on potential functions for a group of agents to achieve flocking and obstacle avoidance. The physical sizes of agents are considered. Taking the different purposes into consideration, two kinds of potential functions are presented with considering the physical radius of agent, and the distributed control law of dynamic system is designed. This algorithm make the agent form flocking in the process of tracking, and reform flocking after accomplishing obstacle avoidance. Finally, some simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm in the paper.