Multiagent Formation Control for Obstacle Traversing Using Distance-Only Measurements in GPS-Denied Environments

This article investigates the problem of multiagent formation control for obstacle traversing mission with the support of distance and displacement measurements in GPS-denied environments. A key challenge in solving this problem is simultaneous estimation of the obstacle's position, determining the relative positions of multiple agents and their formation transition. In this work, we propose to solve the problem by integrating an embedded position estimation system with bounded control inputs into event-triggered formation traverse (ETFT) controller. The convergence analysis of estimation error on location estimation has been provided. Moreover, the ETFT controller for the formation transition has been proved that the multiagent can traverse easily through obstacles based on relative-distance only measurements. Simulations and real-world experiments have both been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.