Swarm control based on artificial potential field method with predicted state and input threshold

In this paper, an improved artificial potential field (APF) method with predictive state is proposed to reduce the influence of communication delay and physical delay on swarm control. The input threshold is introduced to optimize the problem of excessive APF method control input. The control of large-scale swarm systems is challenging due to the complexity of the communication topology. The second-order communication topology is introduced to simplify the coupling relationship of the system. The collision avoidance and formation maintenance control of the swarm system is realized by setting the collision avoidance and formation maintenance potential functions. Based on the proposed improved artificial potential field method, a new distributed controller for swarm system is designed and its stability is analyzed. Numerical simulations are conducted to prove the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.