An Optimization-Based Cooperative Path-Following Framework for Multiple Robotic Vehicles

This article addresses the design of an optimization-based cooperative path-following control law for multiple robotic vehicles that optimally balances the transient tradeoff between coordination and path-following errors. To this end, we formulate a more general multiagent framework where each agent is associated with a continuous-time dynamical model, which governs the evolution of its state, and an output equation that is a function of both the state of the agent and a coordination vector. According to a given network topology, each agent can access its state and coordination vector, as well as the coordination vectors of the neighboring agents. In this setup, the goal is to design a distributed control law that steers the output signals to the origin, while simultaneously driving the coordination vectors of the agents of the network to consensus. To solve this, we propose a model predictive control scheme that builds on a pre-existing auxiliary consensus control law to design a performance index that combines the output regulation objective with the consensus objective. Convergence guarantees under which one can solve this coordinated output regulation problem are provided. Numerical simulations display the effectiveness of the proposed scheme applied to a cooperative path following the control problem of a network of 3-D nonholonomic robotic vehicles.