36,121 research outputs found
Formation Control of Rigid Graphs with a Flex Node Addition
This paper examines stability properties of distance-based formation control
when the underlying topology consists of a rigid graph and a flex node
addition. It is shown that the desired equilibrium set is locally
asymptotically stable but there exist undesired equilibria. Specifically, we
further consider two cases where the rigid graph is a triangle in 2-D and a
tetrahedral in 3-D, and prove that any undesired equilibrium point in these
cases is unstable. Thus in these cases, the desired formations are almost
globally asymptotically stable.Comment: The full version of this paper with general extensions has been
submitted to a journal for publicatio
Controlling a triangular flexible formation of autonomous agents
In formation control, triangular formations consisting of three autonomous
agents serve as a class of benchmarks that can be used to test and compare the
performances of different controllers. We present an algorithm that combines
the advantages of both position- and distance-based gradient descent control
laws. For example, only two pairs of neighboring agents need to be controlled,
agents can work in their own local frame of coordinates and the orientation of
the formation with respect to a global frame of coordinates is not prescribed.
We first present a novel technique based on adding artificial biases to
neighboring agents' range sensors such that their eventual positions correspond
to a collinear configuration. Right after, a small modification in the bias
terms by introducing a prescribed rotation matrix will allow the control of the
bearing of the neighboring agents.Comment: 7 pages, accepted in the 20th World Congress of the International
Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC
Taming mismatches in inter-agent distances for the formation-motion control of second-order agents
This paper presents the analysis on the influence of distance mismatches on
the standard gradient-based rigid formation control for second-order agents. It
is shown that, similar to the first-order case as recently discussed in the
literature, these mismatches introduce two undesired group behaviors: a
distorted final shape and a steady-state motion of the group formation. We show
that such undesired behaviors can be eliminated by combining the standard
formation control law with distributed estimators. Finally, we show how the
mismatches can be effectively employed as design parameters in order to control
a combined translational and rotational motion of the formation.Comment: 14 pages, conditionally accepted in Automatic Control, IEEE
Transactions o
Force-Guiding Particle Chains for Shape-Shifting Displays
We present design and implementation of a chain of particles that can be
programmed to fold the chain into a given curve. The particles guide an
external force to fold, therefore the particles are simple and amenable for
miniaturization. A chain can consist of a large number of such particles. Using
multiple of these chains, a shape-shifting display can be constructed that
folds its initially flat surface to approximate a given 3D shape that can be
touched and modified by users, for example, enabling architects to
interactively view, touch, and modify a 3D model of a building.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure, submitted to IROS 201
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