Formation shape control with distance and area constraints

This paper discusses a formation control problem in which a target formation is defined with both distance and signed area constraints. The control objective is to drive spatially distributed agents to reach a unique target rigid formation shape (up to rotation and translation) with desired inter-agent distances. We define a new potential function by incorporating both distance terms and signed area terms and derive the formation system as a gradient system from the potential function. We start with a triangle formation system with detailed analysis on the equilibrium and convergence property with respect to a weighting gain parameter. For an equilateral triangle example, analytic solutions describing agents’ trajectories are also given. We then examine the four-agent double-triangle formation and provide conditions to guarantee that both triangles converge to the desired side distances and signed areas.