Finite-time formation control for multi-agent systems underlying heterogeneous communication typologies

In this paper, a finite-time formation control protocol for a double-integrator multi-agent system is studied via heterogeneous communication typologies. In detail, the communication topology to share position information and the communication topology to share velocity information can be different when controlling the agents to achieve the desired formation. Based on the Lyapunov method and LaSalle invariance principle, the proposed formation control protocol achieves the desired formation with heterogeneous typologies for both fixed-topology and switching topology cases. Different combinations of typologies vary the performance of the control system, such as convergence, or control cost. Therefore, with the proposed work, various choices will be available to satisfy different performance requirements for the multi-agent systems. In the end, simulation results are provided to verify the proposed formation control protocol.