A robust distributed model predictive control strategy for Leader–Follower formation control of multiple perturbed wheeled mobile robotics

Abstract

This article studies the formation and trajectory tracking control of multiple mobile robots with kinematic sub-systems. We proposed an effective design of robust distributed model predictive control (MPC) strategy for Leader–Follower formation control scheme in a group of multiple perturbed Wheeled Mobile Robotics (WMRs) with the consideration of tracking performance in not only the position but also the orientation, as well as the distance between the center and head in each WMR. Furthermore, the relation between formation control objective and non-holonomic property in each agent is also discussed. For the purpose of achieving the desired formation, according to trajectory of leader WMR, the barycentric of the formation requirement is known as corresponding virtual followers, and a distributed tube-MPC scheme is applied to each follower WMR for tracking a reference trajectory with not only the position but also its orientation. In addition, the stability and the performance tracking of multiple perturbed WMRs are investigated by employing Lyapunov stability theory with the indirect comparison method to be implemented by pointing out precisely the proposed terminal controller and the equivalent terminal region. Comprehensive simulation results in several scenarios demonstrate the validity of the proposed control scheme.