This paper studies the bearing-based time-varying formation control problem for unicycle-type agents without bearing rigidity conditions. In the considered problem, only a small set of agents, named as anchors, can obtain their global positions, and the other agents only have access to the bearing information relative to their neighbors. To address the problem, we propose a novel scheme integrating the distributed localization algorithm and the observer-based formation tracking controller. The designed localization algorithm estimates the global position by using inter-agent bearing measurements, and the observer-based controller tracks the desired formation with the estimated positions. A key distinction of our approach is extending the localization-and-tracking control scheme to the bearing-based coordination of nonholonomic systems, where the desired inter-agent bearings can be time-varying, instead of the constant ones assumed in most of the existing researches. The asymptotic stability of the coupled localization-and-tracking control system is proved, and simulations are carried out to validate the theoretical analysis.

翻译：本文研究无轴承刚性约束条件下单轮式智能体的时变方位编队控制问题。在所考虑的问题中，仅少量被称为锚点的智能体可获得其全局位置，其他智能体仅能获取相对于相邻智能体的方位信息。为解决该问题，我们提出了一种融合分布式定位算法与基于观测器的编队跟踪控制器的新型方案。所设计的定位算法通过智能体间方位测量值估计全局位置，而基于观测器的控制器利用估计位置跟踪期望编队。本研究方法的关键创新在于将定位-跟踪控制方案拓展至非完整系统的基于方位的协同控制，其中智能体间的期望方位可随时间变化，而非现有大多数研究中假设的恒定方位。我们证明了该耦合定位-跟踪控制系统的渐近稳定性，并通过仿真验证了理论分析结果。