Network Connectivity & Flocking with Switching Topology
Introduction
A two level control framework is developed for connectivity maintenance and cooperation of multi-agent systems. Each agent is equipped with an omnidirectional camera and wireless communication capabilities. Image feedback is the primary method to maintain connectivity among agents with wireless communication that is only used to broadcast information when a specific topology change occurs. All agents in the team are categorized as clusterheads or regular nodes. A high level graph is composed of all clusterheads and the motion of the clusterheads is controlled to maintain existing connections among them. A low level graph composed of all regular nodes is controlled to maintain connectivity with respect its specific clusterhead.
Publications
Z. Kan, S. Subramanian, J. M. Shea, and W. E. Dixon, “Vision Based Connectivity Maintenance of a Network with Switching Topology,” IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control part of the Multi-Conference on Systems and Control, Yokohama, Japan, September 2010, pp.1493-1498.
