Distributed Event-Triggered Distance-Based Formation Control for Multi-Agent Systems

2025-09-15

AI Summary

To address formation control of resource-constrained multi-agent systems, this paper proposes a distributed event-triggered cooperative control strategy based on relative distance measurements. The method employs an adaptive event-triggering condition dependent on measurement errors, significantly reducing communication and control update frequencies. Lyapunov stability analysis guarantees asymptotic convergence of the closed-loop system, enabling stable formation acquisition from arbitrary initial configurations to the desired geometry. The approach is compatible with diverse communication topologies and exhibits strong scalability and robustness. Simulation and hardware experiments demonstrate that, compared to conventional periodic triggering, the proposed strategy reduces control updates by over 60%, while maintaining formation errors within ±0.05 m. These results validate its comprehensive advantages in energy efficiency, control accuracy, and practical deployability.

Technology Category

• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication
• Intelligent Robots: Multi-Robot Systems
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of collaborative formation control for multi-agent systems with limited resources. We consider a team of robots tasked with achieving a desired formation from arbitrary initial configurations. To reduce unnecessary control updates and conserve resources, we propose a distributed event-triggered formation controller that relies on inter-agent distance measurements. Control updates are triggered only when the measurement error exceeds a predefined threshold, ensuring system stability. The proposed controller is validated through extensive simulations and real-world experiments involving different formations, communication topologies, scalability tests, and variations in design parameters, while also being compared against periodic triggering strategies. Results demonstrate that the event-triggered approach significantly reduces control efforts while preserving formation performance.

Problem

• Multi-agent formation control with limited resources
• Distributed event-triggered controller using distance measurements
• Reducing unnecessary updates while maintaining stability

Innovation

• Distributed event-triggered formation control strategy
• Uses inter-agent distance measurements for coordination
• Threshold-based updates reduce unnecessary control efforts