Generation of minimally persistent circle formation for a multi-agent system

In this paper, two methods of generating minimally persistent circle formation are presented. The proposed methods adopt a leader-follower strategy and all followers are firstly motivated to move into the leader＇s interaction range. Based on the information about relative angle and relative distance, two numbering schemes are proposed to generate minimally persistent circle formation. Distributed control laws are also designed to maintain the desired relative distance between agents. The distinctive features of the proposed methods are as follows. First, only 2n - 3 unilateral communication links for n agents are needed during the circle formation process and thus the communication complexity can be reduced. In addition, the formation topology is kept fixed for the whole motion and achieves a self-stability property. Finally, each follower keeps a regualr interval with its neighbors and the formation converges to a uniform circle formation. Simulation results are also provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Automatic generation of min-weighted persistent formations

This paper researched into some methods for generating min-weighted rigid graphs and min-weighted persistent graphs. Rigidity and persistence are currently used in various studies on coordination and control of autonomous multi-agent formations. To minimize the communication complexity of formations and reduce energy consumption, this paper introduces the rigidity matrix and presents three algorithms for generating min-weighted rigid and min-weighted persistent graphs. First, the existence of a min-weighted rigid graph is proved by using the rigidity matrix, and algorithm 1 is presented to generate the min-weighted rigid graphs. Second, the algorithm 2 based on the rigidity matrix is presented to direct the edges of min-weighted rigid graphs to generate min-weighted persistent graphs. Third, the formations with range constraints are considered, and algorithm 3 is presented to find whether a framework can form a min-weighted persistent formation. Finally, some simulations are given to show the efficiency of our research.