Distributed non-ideal leader estimation and formation control for multiple non-holonomic mobile robots

This paper studies a distributed formation problem for non-holonomic mobile robots. Consideration of the leader dynamics of the robots as non-ideal, that is, subject to disturbances/unmodelled variables, is the distinguishing feature of this work. The issue is resolved by a distributed combined disturbance-and-leader estimator, allowing for the distributed reconstruction of the leader's signals. The estimator needs to detect the leader's information and disturbance. In order to reject such disturbance and achieve the formation asymptotically, the control law incorporates the smooth estimator's estimate of the leader disturbance. Furthermore, the stability of the total distributed formation control algorithm is also examined using the Lyapunov technique. Finally, to show the viability of the proposed theoretical results, simulations and actual experiments are carried out.