Leader–follower formation control of nonholonomic mobile robots based on a bioinspired neurodynamic based approach

• Leader–follower formation control for nonholonomic mobile robots is investigated.
• Trajectory tracking control for single robot is extended to formation control.
• An auxiliary controller is designed for the asymptotic stability of the formation.
• A bioinspired neurodynamics is used to solve the impractical velocity jump problem.

This paper investigates the leader–follower formation control problem for nonholonomic mobile robots based on a bioinspired neurodynamics based approach. The trajectory tracking control for a single nonholonomic mobile robot is extended to the formation control for multiple nonholonomic mobile robots based on the backstepping technique, in which the follower can track its real-time leader by the proposed kinematic controller. An auxiliary angular velocity control law is proposed to guarantee the global asymptotic stability of the followers and to further guarantee the local asymptotic stability of the entire formation. Also a bioinspired neurodynamics based approach is further developed to solve the impractical velocity jumps problem. The rigorous proofs are given by using Lyapunov theory. Simulations are also given to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.