Distributed Reconfiguration of Distance-Based Formations with Virtual Surface Constraints

This paper proposes a method to recover from the failure or loss of a subset of agents in a distance-based formation problem, where the system is initially deployed forming a virtual shield embedded in the 3D space. First, a distributed algorithm is proposed to restore the topology, which is a Delaunay triangulation. After that, the nodes execute a distance-based distributed control law that considers adaptive target distances. These values are computed in parallel by the nodes, which try to reach an agreement with some constraints, given by the desired shield shape. The updating policy is based on events. The results are illustrated through simulation examples.