Formation feasibility on coordination control of networked heterogeneous systems with drift terms

In this paper, we discuss a general problem of formation feasibility for multi-agent coordination control when individual agents have kinematics constraints modelled by affine nonlinear control systems with possible drift terms. All agents need to work cooperatively to maintain a global formation task described by edge constraints. For such multi-agent group, we assume that different agents may have totally different dynamics, which brings the problem of coordination control of networked heterogeneous systems. Based on concepts of (affine) distribution and codistribution, we propose a unified framework and an algebraic condition to determine the existence of feasible motions under both kinematic constraints and formation constraints. In the case that feasible motions exist, we propose a systematic procedure to obtain an equivalent dynamical system which generates all types of feasible motions. Examples involving coordination control of constant-speed agents are provided to demonstrate the application of this coordination control framework.