Dynamic Optimal Formation Control for Mobile Vehicles With Minimizing Communication Path Loss Under Topology Switching

This paper investigates the challenge of controlling the formation patterns of nonholonomic mobile vehicles (NMVs) fleet during mission execution to safeguard the critical vehicle, while simultaneously minimizing communication path loss among vehicles. Communication path loss refers to the attenuation of signal strength as it propagates between transmitting and receiving vehicles. To address this issue, we model the problem of minimizing communication path loss during the formation process as a non-convex problem. In this context, a novel dynamic optimal formation control with real-time topology adaptation (DOFC) algorithm is proposed. The algorithm consists of iterative optimizer, position offset estimation and predefined-time controller, seamlessly integrating optimization and control methods. Compared to traditional optimal formation, our proposed DOFC allows for dynamic adaptation to communication topology switches and adjustments of the optimal formation during motion. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods, we conduct simulations and experiments.