Distributed event-triggered approach for multi-agent formation based on cooperative localization with mixed measurements

This paper concentrates on multi-agent formation control problems under mixed measurements of distance and bearing. Towards this objective, a distributed event-triggered estimation-based control framework is developed such that only at necessary time instants, the event for estimation (namely, cooperative localization among a subgroup of agents) is triggered to recover relative position information by utilizing a mixed distance and bearing measurements from different agents. Firstly, it is shown by using the stiffness theory that a subgroup of agents are capable of recovering relative position information if a sufficient number of independent distance and range measurements are available. Secondly, a distributed event-triggered mechanism is presented for achieving an affine formation control, which can be implemented in an asynchronous manner and also ensures Zeno-free behavior. Simulation studies are provided to demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed approach.