Distributed Output Formation Control for Linear Swarm Systems with Time-Varying Formation and Directed Topology

Distributed time-varying output formation (TVOF) control problems are addressed in this paper using an adaptive output-feedback approach for general linear swarm systems with directed interaction topology. Compared with the previous work on formation control, a desired TVOF can be achieved by the swarm system without using any global information about the interaction topology. Firstly, an adaptive formation controller is constructed via dynamic output feedback information and sequential observers. Then, a distributed algorithm is proposed to determine the parameters in the adaptive formation controller. A feasible TVOF set is given. Moreover, the stability of the proposed distributed algorithm is proved. Finally, a simulation example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.