Robust Formation Control for Multi-Agent Systems: A Reference Correction Based Approach

In this paper, the problem of formation control is studied for second-order multi-agent systems with practical issues like mismatched uncertainties and obstacle avoidance. A reference correction algorithm based sliding mode control scheme is proposed to ensure the boundedness of each agent's position tracking error. Both disturbance observer and artificial potential field are implemented to first tackle the problem of obstacle avoidance with the existence of mismatched uncertainties. The unreachable reference scenarios are then defined to describe the passive correcting behaviours of the multi-agent system when agents are trying to avoid obstacles. A distributed reference correction algorithm is developed for each agent to attenuate the harmful effects of passive correcting behaviours. The effectiveness of obstacle avoidance and boundedness of position tracking error are both verified by Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, multi-robot system based numerical simulations and comparisons are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and controller.