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This paper provides a solution to the problem of safe region formation control with reference velocity tracking for a second-order multi-agent system without velocity measurements. Safe region formation control is a control problem where the agents are expected to attain the desired formation while reaching the target region and simultaneously ensuring collision and obstacle avoidance. To tackle this control problem, we break it down into two distinct objectives: safety and region formation control, to provide a completely distributed algorithm. Region formation control is modeled as a high-level abstract objective, whereas safety and actuator saturation are modeled as a low-level objective designed independently, without any knowledge of the former, and being minimally invasive. Our approach incorporates connectivity preservation, actuator saturation, safety considerations, and absence of velocity measurement from other agents with second-order system dynamics which are important constraints in practical applications. Both internal safety for collision avoidance among agents and external safety for avoiding unsafe regions are ensured using exponential control barrier functions. We provide theoretical results for asymptotic convergence and numerical simulation to show the approach's effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalized from the concept of consensus, this paper considers a group of edge agreements, i.e. constraints defined for neighboring agents, in which each pair of neighboring agents is required to satisfy one edge agreement constraint. Edge agreements are defined locally to allow more flexibility than a global consensus. This work formulates a multi-agent optimization problem under edge agreements and proposes a continuous-time distributed algorithm to solve it. Both analytical proof and numerical examples are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss and discover several conservation and associated decay laws in distributed coordination control systems, in particular in formation shape control systems. Specifically, we reveal conservations of linear momentum and angular momentum for gradient-based multi-agent formation systems modelled by single integrators, and show several corresponding conservation/decay laws for double-integrator formation stabilization systems and double-integrator flocking systems, respectively. By exploiting translation and rotation symmetry properties and insights from Noether’s theorem, we further establish a multi-agent version of the relation between symmetry and conservation laws for gradient-based coordination systems derived from general potential functions, from which we generalize the conservation/decay laws to more general networked coordination control systems. The results hold in ambient spaces of any dimensions, and we focus on the 2-D and 3-D cases due to their natural interpretation as positions of agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a distributed approach for inverse optimal control (IOC) in multi-agent systems. Here each agent can only communicate with certain nearby neighbors and only accesses segments of system's trajectory, which is not sufficient for the agent to solve the IOC problem alone. By introducing the concept of the data effectiveness and bridging the connection between each segment and its contribution to solving IOC, we formulate the IOC problem as a problem of achieving least-square solutions via a distributed algorithm. Simulations are provided to validate the proposed distributed IOC approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]