Flocking Control for Multiple Convex Polygonal Agents with Obstacle Avoidance

This paper addresses the distributed flocking control for second-order convex polygonal multiagent systems with obstacle avoidance. Typically, agent shapes are reduced to mere points or circles in existing research. Overlooking the actual geometries of entities such as autonomous ships and vehicles may lead to suboptimal utilization of spatial resources. To rectify this, the paper introduces an approach for calculating the relative distance between two convex polygonal agents. A potential function, which balances attractive and repulsive forces, is designed based on these calculated distances. A flocking trajectory guides collective motion, and a separate obstacle-avoidance trajectory is activated when the agent's proximity to an obstacle falls below a specified safety threshold. The proposed control strategy integrates potential function and reference trajectory is designed to achieve flocking behavior and obstacle avoidance. Stability analysis proves the effectiveness of the algorithm.