Formation Control with Obstacle Avoidance via Complex Laplacian

This article handles the obstacle avoidance problem of formation using the complex Laplacian. We assume that only two agents named leaders can obtain information from the target due to the particularity of formation control via complex Laplacian. A strategy is proposed to handle the problem of obstacle avoidance, this control strategy consists of three parts: formation control, track control and obstacle avoidance. The formation is completed by complex Laplacian in which the final formation is determined by the two leaders with consistent speed. However, the speed of the leaders will definitely be affected by obstacles. we choose a target curve for leaders to track so that they can eventually reach the same velocity after avoiding obstacles. The problem of obstacle avoidance is completed by the artificial potential field (APF) method. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of multi-agent obstacle avoidance and formation under the proposed control protocol.