Distributed finite-time control for coordinated circumnavigation with multiple agents under directed topology

This paper investigates the finite-time coordinated circumnavigation problem for multiple agents with velocity constraints under directed topology. All agents are required to surround a moving target with prescribed radius and circular velocity, as well as to maintain a prescribed distribution pattern. First, a finite-time control law is designed rendering each agent to circumnavigate the target. Subsequently, an additional finite-time consensus control protocol is developed for the coordinated distribution subobjective. Finally, the synthesized controller comprising of the aforementioned control law and the consensus control protocol enables all agents to converge to the desired trajectories in finite time. In our method, the directed topology considered here only needs to have a directed spanning tree, and moreover, the velocity constraints on agents are considered and naturally integrated into the design procedure. Numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. (C) 2019 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.