Forced Symmetric Formation Control

This work considers the distance constrained formation control problem with an additional constraint requiring that the formation exhibits a specified spatial symmetry. We employ recent results from the theory of symmetry-forced rigidity to construct an appropriate potential function that leads to a gradient dynamical system driving the agents to the desired formation. We show that only (1+1/|Γ|)n edges are sufficient to implement the control strategy when there are n agents and the underlying symmetry group is Γ. This number is considerably smaller than what is typically required from classic rigidity-theory based strategies (2n-3 edges). We also provide an augmented control strategy that ensures the agents can converge to a formation with respect to an arbitrary centroid. Numerous numerical examples are provided to illustrate the main results.