Stability analysis of M-dimensional asynchronous swarms with a fixed communication topology

Abstract

Coordinated dynamical swarm behavior occurs when certain types of animals forage for food or try to avoid predators. Analogous behaviors can occur in engineering systems (e.g. in groups of autonomous mobile robots or UAVs). In this paper, we study a model of an M-dimensional (M /spl ges/ 2) asynchronous swarm with a communication topology, where each member only communicate with fixed neighbors, to provide conditions under which collision-free convergence can be achieved with finite-size swarm members that have proximity sensors and neighbor position sensors that only provide delayed position information. Moreover, we give conditions under which an M-dimensional asynchronous mobile swarm following an "edge-leader" can maintain cohesion during movements even in the presence of sensing delays and asynchronism, and analyze the swarm movement flexibility. Such stability analysis is of fundamental importance if one wants to understand the coordination mechanisms for groups of autonomous vehicles or robots where inter-member communication channels are less than perfect and collisions must be avoided.