Backstepping control design for motion coordination of self-propelled vehicles

Motion coordination of autonomous vehicles has applications from target surveillance to climate monitoring. Previous research has yielded stabilizing control laws for a self-propelled-vehicle model with first-order rotational dynamics; however, this model may not adequately describe the rotational dynamics of vehicles in the atmosphere or ocean. This paper describes the design of backstepping algorithms for the decentralized control of self-propelled vehicles with second-order rotational dynamics. We design backstepping controls for planar parallel and circular formations in the absence of a flowfield and in the presence of a steady, uniform flowfield. These controls extend prior results to a more realistic vehicle model.