Collective Tracking with a Dynamic Leader

Abstract

This chapter introduces a collective tracking problem in the presence of a dynamic leader. The problem has applications in formation flying, body guard, and target tracking. We solve the distributed collective tracking problem via a variable structure approach when there exists a dynamic leader who is a neighbor of only a subset of a group of followers, all followers have only local interaction, and only partial measurements of the states of the leader and the followers are available. In the context of collective tracking, we focus on both coordinated tracking and swarm tracking algorithms. The objective of coordinated tracking is that a group of followers intercepts a dynamic leader with local interaction. The objective of swarm tracking is that a group of followers moves cohesively with a dynamic leader while avoiding inter-agent collision with local interaction. Both single-integrator dynamics and double-integrator dynamics are considered. Several simulation examples are presented as a proof of concept.