  This paper is concerned with bearing-based cooperative target entrapping
control of multiple uncertain agents with arbitrary maneuvers including shape
deformation, rotations, scalings, etc. A leader-follower structure is used,
where the leaders move with the predesigned trajectories, and the followers are
steered by an estimation-based control method, integrating a distance estimator
using bearing measurements and a stress matrix-based formation controller. The
signum functions are used to compensate for the uncertainties so that the
agents' accelerations can be piecewise continuous and bounded to track the
desired dynamics. With proper design of the leaders' trajectories and a
geometric configuration, an affine matrix is determined so that the
persistently exciting conditions of the inter-agent relative bearings can be
satisfied since the bearing rates are related to different weighted
combinations of the affine matrix vectors. The asymptotic convergence of the
estimation error and control error is proved using Filipov properties and
cascaded system theories. A sufficient condition for inter-agent collision
avoidance is also proposed. Finally, simulation results are given to validate
the effectiveness of the method in both 2D and 3D cases.

Systems and Control;Systems and Control