Automatic Leader-Follower Persistent Formation Generation with Minimum Agent-Movement in Various Switching Topologies

This paper presents the generation strategy, motion planning, and switching topologies of a distance-based leader-follower relation-invariable persistent formation (RIPF) of multiagent systems (MASs). An efficient algorithm is designed to find out if a persistent formation can be generated from a rigid graph. Derived from the properties of a rigid graph, the algorithm to generate RIPF from any initial location is presented. In order to generate different RIPFs in the switching topology, state and transition matrices are introduced. To achieve the minimum agent-movement among RIPFs, a downward-tree combinatorial optimization algorithm is presented. In the end, with the selected minimum agent-movement RIPF, a control law is designed to drive initial RIPF to desired RIPF with given distances among agents. Simulation results show the proposed generation method, control law, and downward-tree are effective to realize the desired formation.