Scalable multi-agent formation with bearing only measurement: Consensus based approach

Target centric deviated cyclic pursuit is a variant of the deviated cyclic pursuit strategy designed to track a target. Deviated cyclic pursuit has more flexibility as compared to the classical cyclic pursuit laws. In this work, we obtain a scalable formation of the UAVs around the target. The formation is scaled in a decentralized manner by changing a parameter of any of the vehicles. The strategy uses only bearing angle information of the target and the neighbours. We carried out the analysis assuming simple kinematic model for each vehicle. At equilibrium, the vehicles get into a rigid polygonal formation which rotates around the target. The size of the polygon is scalable. We analysed the local stability of equilibrium formations. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The strategy is applied to miniature areal vehicles (MAV) represented by 6-DOF dynamics in a hardware in-loop simulator, which includes all on-board electronics of the MAVs.