Abstract：To eliminate the influence of limited communication on formation control for multi-robot system, a distributed formation control algorithm based on communication delay was proposed by consensus theory. A formation graph was employed to describe the network topology of robots, and some related matrixes were introduced to represent the formation graph form a desired formation condition by matrix control theories. According to Lyapunov stability theorem, delayindependent and delaydependent stable conditions were obtained respectively in the form of linear matrix inequality (LMI). The multirobot system was verified to converge to the desired geometry formation and velocity asymptotically by the proposed algorithm. Simulations of multirobot formation were performed to verify the effectiveness of formation control strategy and the correctness of conclusions. The results show that the multirobot system can form the desired formation by the proposed algorithm under stable condition.
2012, Vol. 33 
