Distributed Control Method of Networked Multi-Vehicle System Considering Communication Range

Abstract

In this research, we propose a distributed control method for a multi-vehicle system. Due to the communication range between vehicles, we need to consider the range when vehicles move toward objective positions, and moreover we need to control the network topology. We formulate a multi-vehicle system as a hybrid dynamical system in which we can control both vehicle positions and the network topology. The system can be controled by receding horizon method, but the method may require a long time because there are many discrete variables. Then, we analyze the constraint space and propose a distributed control method with reduced discrete variables. We show the advantage and computatinanal time of our method by a computer simulation.