Designing stable finite state machine behaviors using phase plane analysis and variable structure control

摘要

This paper discusses how phase plane analysis can be used to describe the overall behavior of single and multiple autonomous robotic vehicles with finite state machine rules. The importance of this result is that one can begin to design provably asymptotically stable group behaviors from a set of simple control laws and appropriate switching points with decentralized variable structure control. The ability to prove asymptotically stable group behavior is especially important for applications such as locating military targets or land mines.