Emergent Hypotrochoidal and Epitrochoidal Formations in a Swarm of Agents

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fedele, Giuseppe; D'Alfonso, Luigi; Bono, Antonio
• 署名单位: University of Calabria
• 刊物名称: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0018-9286
• DOI: 10.1109/TAC.2023.3287290
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 8087-8094
• 关键词: Distributed control; epitrochoid; hypotrochoid; Multiagent system (MAS); parametric curves; swarm formation

摘要

This article proposes a decentralized controller for a swarm of agents that generates hypotrochoidal and epitrochoidal curves in a 3-D space. The dynamics of the agents is modeled as a double integrator where the control input, i.e., the acceleration profile, contains two terms that account for the interactions between the agents in terms of position and velocity, respectively. The term related to the interaction between velocities is weighted by a skew-symmetric matrix responsible for coupling the velocities displacements. Such a matrix defines an axis of rotation centered on the centroid of the swarm, around which the swarm organizes itself to generate the desired trajectories, which can be selected by properly setting two free parameters of the model. In particular, the motion of each agent is analyzed by separating its dynamics along the rotation axis from that in the perpendicular plane. It is shown that the agents achieve consensus or periodic motion along the axis of rotation while performing the desired evolutions in the perpendicular plane. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the proposed framework.