Distributed Control for a Multiagent System to Pass Through a Connected Quadrangle Virtual Tube

In order to guide the multiagent system in a cluttered environment, a connected quadrangle virtual tube is designed for all agents to keep moving within it, whose basis is called the single trapezoid virtual tube. There is no obstacle inside the tube, namely, the area inside the tube can be seen as a safety zone. Then, a distributed swarm controller is proposed for the single trapezoid virtual tube passing-through control problem. This issue is resolved by a gradient vector field method with no local minima. Formal analyses and proofs are made to show that all agents are able to pass through the single trapezoid virtual tube. Finally, a modified controller is put forward for convenience in practical use. For the connected quadrangle virtual tube, a modified switching logic is proposed to avoid the deadlock and prevent agents from moving outside the virtual tube. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by numerical simulations and real experiments.