Dynamic Feasibility of Cooperative Systems under Communication Delay

Abstract

In this article, the dynamic feasibility of a finite set of spatially distributed systems to engage in a formation is investigated. When system design capabilities such as state and input constraints are given, formation options may be limited, due to initial condition errors resulting from modelling uncertainties, exogenous inputs, etc. These underlying factors in turn affect the feasibility of interconnection, which are the design variables used to synthesize a formation. In a leader-follower framework, it is shown that, in some cases, the communication delay has a favourable effect on the feasibility of interconnections, i.e. a communication delay can convert an infeasible interconnection into a feasible one and increase the formation options. A mobile robot example is provided for illustration.