Cooperative source seeking with distance-based formation control and single-integrator agents

In this paper and its companion paper (Ahmadi Barogh and Werner, 2017), the problem of source seeking with a group of agents in a distance-based formation is considered. Each agent is equipped with appropriate sensors to detect the distance between itself and its neighbors and to measure the strength of a field signal. The task is to find a maximum point of the scalar field in the area. Each agent estimates the gradient of the scalar field cooperatively and moves in the gradient direction, by maintaining the specified formation in movement. In this paper, a distributed controller for navigation of single integrator agents is proposed. We use a distance-based formation controller to maintain a predefined formation when moving with collision avoidance. The center of formation converges to the region near the source and agents do not need access to a common coordinate system. Conditions are provided for the asymptotic stability of the system and for the formation center to converge a bounded region near the source. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach