Spherical cyclic formation control

Abstract

In this paper, we study the problem of tracking and encircling a moving target by agents in 3D. Specifically, a group of agents are driven to some desired formation on a spherical surface and simultaneously keep the center of this spherical formation coinciding with the target to be tracked. In our control design, the desired formation is not used as a reference signal for tracking. Rather by designing communication topology for the agents we can achieve the desired formation using relative positions only. We can also place the desired cyclic formation on the equator if the north pole is specified.