IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO.

10, OCTOBER 2014 5419

A Finite-Time Motion Control Strategy for

Odor Source Localization
Qiang Lu, Member, IEEE, Qing-Long Han, Senior Member, IEEE, Xiaogao Xie, Member, IEEE, and Shirong Liu

Abstract—This paper deals with the problem of odor source

localization by designing and analyzing a finite-time motion con-
trol strategy (FTMCS), which consists of a finite-time parallel
motion control algorithm and a finite-time circular motion control
algorithm. Specifically, a motion control architecture is first given
and includes two important modules: 1) a coordinating control
module; and 2) a tracking control module. In the coordinating
control module, robots communicate with each other to coordinate
their virtual position and virtual velocity such that the virtual
velocity consensus and the accurate virtual shape decided by the
potential function can be reached within a finite-time interval.
In the tracking control module, a finite-time tracking control
algorithm is implemented such that the real velocity and the real
position of the robot can track the virtual velocity and the vir-
tual position within a finite-time interval. Based on the proposed
motion control architecture, a finite-time parallel motion control
algorithm that can control a group of robots to trace a plume, is
derived. Moreover, a finite-time circular motion control algorithm Fig. 1. Odor source localization based on a multirobot system.
that can enable the robot group to search for odor clues is also
designed. Finally, simulations are worked out to illustrate the be used to deal with a specific area of interest that is unknown
effectiveness of the FTMCS for odor source localization. during deployment [8], [27], [30]. For example, a group of
Index Terms—Finite-time coordinating control, finite-time robots can be deployed to search for the source of dangerous
tracking control, multirobot systems, odor source localization. gas leakage in an unknown environment, which is illustrated
in Fig. 1, where the odor source marked by the yellow circle
I. I NTRODUCTION releases a great deal of filaments that form a plume that is
shaped by wind. The blue arrow in Fig. 1 denotes the direction

M ULTIROBOT systems have been widely studied in

many scientific fields, such as computing, control, com-
munication, and artificial intelligence due to their practical sig-
nificance for the military, agriculture, and the industry, to name
a few [1], [9], [23], [26]. In particular, a multirobot system can
Manuscript received November 18, 2012; revised December 1, 2013;
accepted December 30, 2013. Date of publication January 21, 2014; date of
current version May 2, 2014. This work was supported in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61375104, Grant 61203025,
and Grant 61175093; by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province
under Grant LQ13F030014; by the Australian Research Council Discovery
Project under Grant DP1096780; and by the Research Advancement Awards
Scheme Program (January 2010–December 2012) of Central Queensland
University.
Q. Lu was with Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4702,
Australia. He is now with the School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi Univer-
sity, Hangzhou 310018, China (e-mail: lvqiang@hdu.edu.cn).
Q.-L. Han is with the Centre for Intelligent and Networked Systems, Institute
of Research Industries and Sustainability; with the School of Engineering and
Technology; and also with the Higher Education Division, Central Queensland
University, Rockhampton, QLD 4702, Australia (e-mail: q.han@cqu.edu.au).
X. Xie is with the School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi University,
Hangzhou 310018, China (e-mail: xiexg@hdu.edu.cn).
S. Liu is with the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Automation; and
also with the School of Automation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou
310018, China (e-mail: liushirong@hdu.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2014.2301751
0278-0046 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
and speed of wind. In Fig. 1, one can see that five robots are
used to locate the source of gas leakage. Furthermore, one can
see that, compared with a single robot [22], a multirobot system
obviously provides a wider detection region to capture the
time-varying plume. In a dynamical and unknown environment,
how a group of robots is controlled to locate the odor source,
i.e., odor source localization, is the problem addressed in this
paper.
From the research results in [22], one can conclude the
three main characteristics of the problem of odor source lo-
calization. First, there exists a global concentration maximum
that occurs in the vicinity of the position of the odor source
and multiple local concentration maxima along the plume.
Second, the positions with local concentration maxima are
time varying due to the influence of wind. Finally, the odor
concentration is only detected within a plume at each time.
On the basis of these three main characteristics, the current
solutions running at a multirobot system are the particle swarm
optimization (PSO) algorithms [12], [16], [20], which are a
class of odor-concentration-based approaches. However, there
exist two issues for the current solutions [12], [20]. One issue
is that the use of concentration information may result in the
local convergence of the multirobot system in the environment
characterized by high Reynolds numbers [22]. Another issue is
that the use of a proportional controller for a single robot may
5420 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2014

result in the disordered movement of the robot group such that II. DYNAMICS OF D IFFERENTIALLY
the characteristic of the wider detection region of the multirobot D RIVEN M OBILE ROBOT
system cannot be efficiently utilized. The first issue has been
For the mobile robots, such as P3-DX, the dynamics can be
dealt with in our previous research [14], [15] by proposing a
described by
“soft sensor” to observe the position of the odor source. In terms ⎛ ⎞ ⎛
of these research results, the second issue will be coped with in ṙxi ⎞ ⎛ 0 0
⎞
νi cos θi
this paper. ⎜ ṙyi ⎟ ⎜ νi sin θi ⎟ ⎜ 0 0 ⎟ 
⎜ ⎟ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟ Fi
⎜ θ̇i ⎟ = ⎜ ⎜ ⎟
Furthermore, because of the time-varying characteristic of ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ωi ⎟ +
⎠ ⎜
0 0 ⎟ (1)
the plume, two cases need to be considered. One case is that ⎝ ν̇i ⎠ ⎝ 0 ⎝ m1 0 ⎠ τi
i
the multirobot system detects the chemical signal, whereas the 0 1
ω̇i 0 Ji
other case is that the multirobot system loses the chemical
signal. When the multirobot system receives the chemical where ri = (rxi , ryi )T is the position of the ith robot, θi
signal, the plume linking the odor source with the multirobot denotes the orientation, νi is the linear velocity, ωi is the angular
system provides an important clue for the position of the velocity, τi is the torque, Fi is the force, mi is the mass, and Ji
odor source. Moving along the plume is an efficient approach is the moment of inertia. Let yi = (ri , θi , νi , ωi )T be the state
to locate the odor source. When the multirobot system loses of the ith robot and Ii = (Fi , τi )T be the control input.
the chemical signal, circling a probable position of the odor Because nonholonomic systems cannot be stabilized with
source is an efficient approach to collect odor clues. Using the continuous static state feedback, we use the “hand position”
aforementioned idea, the design of controllers for the single instead of the “center position” of the robot [24]. The dynamics
robot should enable the robot group to move parallel for tracing of the hand position of the robot can be described by
the plume and to circularly move for searching for odor clues

ẋi = vi
such that the characteristic of the wider detection region of the (2)
v̇i = ui , i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , N }
multirobot system can be efficiently utilized. In fact, this idea
is proposed in [18]. However, in this paper, we will design a where xi and vi denote the position and velocity for robot i at
different control strategy to realize this idea. Recently, finite- the hand position, respectively, and N is the number of robots.
time controllers have gained increasing attention in literature Let Li be the distance between the hand position and the center
[3], [10], [11], [13] due to their higher control accuracy, better position along the line that is perpendicular to the wheel axis
performance in disturbance rejection, and robustness against [24]. The relationship between the hand position and the center
uncertainties. Then, in a dynamical and unknown environment, position can be described by
fast convergence for the multirobot system enables the robot 
to get more odor information to precisely observe the position cos θi
xi = ri + Li (3)
of the odor source using the soft sensor [14], [15]. Next, a sin θi
few finite-time controllers are concerned with the collision  
cos θi −Li sin θ νi
avoidance function in the controller design and are easy to be vi = . (4)
sin θi Li cos θi ωi
realized. Therefore, how to design a finite-time parallel motion
control algorithm with collision avoidance functions to control From (3) and (4), we can obtain the position and velocity of
the robot group to move along the plume and how to develop the hand position of the robot, and then, we can calculate the
a finite-time circular motion control algorithm with collision control law ui for the double-integrator system [see (2)]. Then,
avoidance functions to enable the robot group to search for odor we can obtain the following control input for the system [see (1)]:
clues are the main motivations of the current study.  1
To sum up, we will develop and analyze a finite-time motion cos θi − LJii sin θi −1
Ii = m1i Li
control strategy (FTMCS), which consists of the parallel and mi sin θi Ji cos θi
circular motions of the multirobot system. Therefore, we will   
−νi ωi sin θi − Li ωi2 cos θi
first give a motion control architecture, which includes two × ui − . (5)
νi ωi cos θi − Li ωi2 sin θi
important modules, i.e., a coordinating control module and a
tracking control module. In the coordinating control module, Usually, the applied torque for the left wheel and that for the
we will design a finite-time coordinating control algorithm in right wheel can be calculated by
order to obtain the virtual velocity consensus and the virtual 
Jwheel Fi τi l
shape formation decided by the potential function with collision τl = − (6)
avoidance functions in finite time. In the tracking control mod- b mi 2Ji
ule, we will develop a finite-time tracking control algorithm 
Jwheel Fi τi l
in order to enable the real velocity and the real position to τr = + (7)
b mi 2Ji
track the virtual velocity and the virtual position in finite time,
respectively. On the basis of the given architecture, we will where b is the radius of the wheel, l denotes the axis length
propose a finite-time parallel motion control algorithm and a between the two wheels, Jwheel is the moment of inertia of
finite-time circular motion control algorithm. Finally, we will the wheel, and τl and τr refer to the applied torque for the left
illustrate the effectiveness of the FTMCS for the problem of wheel and that for the right wheel, respectively. In the following
odor source localization. simulations, the parameters for P3-DX are shown in Table I.
LU et al.: FTMCS FOR ODOR SOURCE LOCALIZATION
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE P3-DX M OBILE ROBOTS
Fig. 2. Motion control architecture.
III. C OORDINATING C ONTROL AND T RACKING C ONTROL
In this section, we will propose a motion control architecture
and describe each module in this architecture.
A. Motion Control Architecture
The proposed motion control architecture, which consists of
five modules, i.e., a sensing module, a soft sensor module, a
coordinating control module, a tracking control module, and an
actuation module, is illustrated in Fig. 2.
1) Module Description: For the sensing module, the input
data are from two aspects: 1) from the robot; and 2) from
the environment. Moreover, the sensing module enables trans-
ferring the real velocity, the real position of the robot, and
environmental information as the output data into the tracking
control module and the soft sensor module. For the coordinating
control module, the input data are the position of the odor
source, the virtual positions of other robots, and the virtual
velocities of other robots. Moreover, the virtual velocity and
virtual position of the current robot as the output data of the
module are transferred into the tracking control module. For the
N  
tracking control module, the input data are the virtual velocity,
the virtual position, the real position, and the real velocity,
whereas the output data are the applied torque for the left
wheel and that for the right wheel of robots. In the proposed
motion control architecture, the soft sensor can be used to
“measure” the position of the odor source. In order to run the
soft sensor, the input data, which are from the sensing module
and communication networks, are the positions of robots, the
odor concentration, and the wind velocity. In addition, the
output data are the positions of the odor source [14].
2) Specification of Mobile Robots: In order to enable the
motion control architecture to run at real mobile robots, the
5421
TABLE II
S PECIFICATIONS OF THE M OBILE ROBOT
specifications for mobile robots need to be described. Specif-
ically, four kinds of information, including wind velocities,
odor concentrations, robot positions, and robot velocities, need
to be detected. Correspondingly, the required detection reso-
lutions are given in Table II. For the wind sensor, in order
to satisfy the resolutions, we can use WindSonic produced by
Gill Instruments Ltd. as the wind sensor. For the concentration
sensor, we can use e2v MiCS-5524 as the concentration sensor
to detect carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and volatile organic
compounds. The Differential Global Positioning System and an
encoder can be used to get the position and velocity with the
corresponding resolutions. For the actuator, the Pittman brush
direct current motors can be used. Moreover, the soft sensor,
the coordinating control algorithm, and the tracking control
algorithm can run at the hardware environment with Pentium M
1.4 GHz with 512 MB of random access memory. The operation
system is Linux. In order to satisfy the aforementioned require-
ments, the mainboard PCM-9584 can be employed.
B. Potential Function
The potential functions have been widely used for robot
navigation and control. Various functions have been proposed
for different aims [4], [19], [23]. In this paper, we consider the
following potential function form as
J = f (xi − xj 2 )
where f : R2 × R2 → R denotes a map, xi − xj 2 refers to
the distance between the ith robot and the jth robot, and  · 2
denotes the two-norm. Moreover, this kind of potential function
should have the following properties.
1) Potential function J has the zero minimum at xi −
xj 2 = d, where d > 0 is a predefined constant.
2) There exists a constant c > 0 such that the potential
function satisfies
 ∂J 2
J ≤c  
 ∂xi  .
i=1 2
It is obvious that we can always build a potential function
that possesses the aforementioned properties. For example,
the potential function proposed by Olfati-Saber [21] has the
aforementioned properties.
C. Coordinating Control
In the coordinating control module, we provide the following
finite-time coordinating control algorithm, which can enable the
5422
Fig. 3. Parallel movement for three robots, where the blue “o” denotes the initial position, and the red “” denotes the end position. (a) Parallel movement.
(b) Linear velocity. (c) Angular velocity. (d) Heading.
virtual velocity consensus and the accurate formation shaped by
the potential function to be reached within a finite-time interval
 p
∂J
x̂˙ i (t) = v̂i (t) − β (8a)
∂ x̂i
⎛ ⎞p
N
v̂˙ i (t) = γ ⎝ aij (v̂j − v̂i )⎠ (8b)
j=1
where p = ((2α − 1)/(2α + 1)), α > 0.5 and is an integer;
β > 0; γ > 0; x̂i (t) and v̂i (t) denote the virtual position and
virtual velocity of the ith robot, respectively; and J is a poten-
tial function. If there exists a communication link between the
ith robot and the jth robot, aij = 1, and aij = 0 otherwise.
Remark 1: Although this decoupling idea about virtual
control has been proposed in [3], we introduce the collision
functions in the controller design for odor source localization.
Moreover, the proposed finite-time coordinating control algo-
rithm is continuous and easy to be programmed compared with
other finite-time control algorithms [3], [11], [13] due to no
“sign” function.
Remark 2: Due to the control saturation constraints of the
N
real robots and the characteristics of the odor source localiza-
tion problem that means that the robot cannot quickly move,
parameters γ and β cannot be given bigger values. In the
following simulations, we usually set the two parameters within
(0, 1]. Considering to keep the better performance of finite-
time convergence and disturbance rejection, we usually set
parameter α within [1, 5].
D. Tracking Control
In order to enable the real velocity and the real position for
second-order dynamics (2) to track the virtual velocity and the
virtual position, respectively, we give the following finite-time
tracking control algorithm, which is described by
 2q−1
1
1 the parallel movement of three robots. The corresponding
ui (t) = v̂˙i − k (vi − v̂i ) q + k1q (xi − x̂i ) (9)
where xi and x̂i are the real and virtual positions of the ith
robot, respectively; vi and v̂i are the real and virtual velocities
of the ith robot, respectively; k1 > (21−q /q); k = k2 k3 ; k2 =
1/q
21−q (2 − q)k1 ; k3 = ((k1 q + 2q21−q + 21−q )/(1 + q)); and
q = ((2α − 1)/(2α + 1)) > 0.5, which means that α > 1.5
and is an integer.
Remark 3: Due to the same reasons as the parameters in (8),
we usually set parameter α within [2, 5]. Moreover, parameter
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2014
k1 cannot be also given a bigger value. Consequently, we
usually set parameter k1 such that it can just barely meet the
aforementioned condition.
IV. FTMCS
In this section, we will give the FTMCS, which includes the
finite-time parallel motion control algorithm and the finite-time
circular motion control algorithm.
A. Finite-Time Parallel Motion Control
In this section, we will propose a finite-time parallel motion
control algorithm, which can coordinate the robot group to
move parallel in order to trace the plume. The proposed finite-
time parallel motion control algorithm consists of finite-time
tracking control algorithm (9) and the following finite-time
coordinating control algorithm:
 p
∂J
x̂˙ i (t) = v̂i (t) − β (10a)
∂ x̂i
⎛ ⎞p
v̂˙i (t) = v̇c + γ ⎝ aij (v̂j − v̂i ) + λ(vc − v̂i )⎠ (10b)
j=1
where λ > 0, x̂i (t) and v̂i (t) denote the virtual position and
virtual velocity of the ith robot, respectively, and vc is the
reference velocity and can be calculated based on the position
of the odor source. J is the potential function.
Remark 4: It should be pointed out that parameters p, β,
and γ in (10) are the same as the parameters in (8), whereas
parameter λ is usually set within (0, 1].
Example 1: In this example, we will use a physics simulation
platform provided by Microsoft Robotics Studio. Consider
robot dynamics (1), and set parameters α = 4, β = 0.5, γ = 1,
λ = 0.4, k1 = 2.5, r = 5, d = 2.8, and vc = [0.4, −0.2] for the
finite-time parallel motion control algorithm. Fig. 3(a) shows
linear velocity, angular velocity, and heading are shown in
Fig. 3(b)–(d), respectively.
B. Finite-Time Circular Motion Control
In this section, we will propose a finite-time circular mo-
tion control algorithm, which can coordinate the robot group
to circle a predicted odor source position in order to search
for odor clues. We first introduce a virtual robot that can
communicate with all real robots. Accordingly, the position
LU et al.: FTMCS FOR ODOR SOURCE LOCALIZATION 5423

Fig. 4. Circular movement for three robots, where the blue “o” denotes the initial position, and the red “” denotes the end position. (a) Circular movement. (b)
Linear velocity. (c) Angular velocity. (d) Heading.

and velocity of the virtual robot are hr and ḣr , respectively.

hr (t) = (hcx + R cos (θr ) hcy + R sin (θr ))T , where θ˙r = ω0
with ω0 denoting the angular velocity, R denotes the radius, and
hc (hcx , hcy ) denotes the probable position of the odor source
from the soft sensor.
The finite-time circular motion control algorithm consists
of finite-time tracking control algorithm (9) and the following
finite-time coordinating control algorithm:
 p
∂ Jˇ
x̂˙ i (t) = v̂i (t) − β (11a)
∂ x̂i
⎛ ⎞p
N
v̂˙i (t) = ḧr + γ ⎝ aij (v̂j − v̂i ) + λ(ḣr − v̂i )⎠ (11b)
j=1

where x̂i (t) and v̂i (t) denote the virtual position and virtual
velocity of the ith robot, respectively. J˘ is an extended potential
function for all the robots, including the virtual robot.
Remark 5: It is worth mentioning that parameters p, β, γ,
and λ in (11) are the same as the parameters in (10). Moreover,
one can see that, in (11), we use an extended potential function
˘ The difference between J˘ and J is that, for J,
J. ˘ we consider
N real robots plus a virtual robot, which means that the number
of robots is N + 1. The objective of the introduced virtual robot
is to enable N robots to circle the predefined center under the
extended potential function J. ˘
Example 2: In this example, we use the same simulation
platform as Example 1 to test the proposed finite-time circular
motion control algorithm. Consider robot dynamics (1), and set
parameters α = 4, β = 0.3, γ = 1, λ = 0.6, k1 = 2.5, r = 9,
d = 2.8, R = 8, ω0 = 0.02, and hc = (0, 0) for the finite-time
circular motion control algorithm. Fig. 4(a) shows the circular
movement of three robots. The corresponding linear velocity,
angular velocity, and heading are shown in Fig. 4(b)–(d),
respectively.
If the robots are required to be uniformly distributed around
the circle, then finite-time coordinating control algorithm (11)
can be extended as
 p
∂ Jˇ
x̂˙ i (t) =v̂i (t)−β
∂ x̂
 N i
 
v̂˙i (t) =ḧir +γ aij (v̂j − ḣjr )−(v̂i − ḣir )
j=1
p
+ λ(ḣir −v̂i )
Fig. 5. Flowchart for the FTMCS.
where hir and ḣir denote the position and velocity of the ith
virtual robot, respectively. Moreover, ḧir refers to the accelera-
tion of the ith virtual robot.
C. FTMCS
The proposed FTMCS consists of the finite-time parallel
motion control algorithm and the finite-time circular motion
control algorithm. Under different environmental conditions,
the two algorithms start each other. Specifically, on one hand,
when the robot group detects the odor clues, the finite-time
parallel motion control algorithm starts to run. On the other
hand, when the robot group loses the odor clues and the losing
time is more than 20 s, the finite-time circular motion algorithm
begins to run. Finally, the flowchart of the FTMCS can be found
in Fig. 5.
V. S TABILITY A NALYSIS
In this section, we will first give a definition of finite-time
convergence and several lemmas, which can be used in the fol-
(12a) lowing convergence analysis. Then, we introduce the concept of
graph and communication topologies among robots. Next, we
will prove the convergence of finite-time coordinating control
algorithm (8) and finite-time tracking control algorithm (9). It
should be pointed out that the proof processes of coordinating
(12b) control algorithms (10) and (11) are omitted because their
proofs are similar to that of finite-time coordinating control
5424 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2014

algorithm (8). Finally, the performance analysis of disturbance [v̂1 , . . . , v̂N ]T ∈ RN . Choose a Lyapunov candidate as
rejection for finite-time coordinating control algorithm (8) and
1
N
finite-time tracking control algorithm (9) is presented.
V = |φi |p+1 .
In the following, the definition of finite-time convergence and p + 1 i=1
three lemmas [5] are given.
Definition 1: Consider system ẋ = f (x(t)). The origin is It is obvious that V ≥ 0, and along the trajectory [see (8b)], we
said to be a finite-time-stable equilibrium if there exists an have
open neighborhood N ⊆ D of the origin and function T :
N \ {0} → (0, ∞), such that, for every x0 ∈ N \ {0}, x(t) is V̇ = −γφpT L(A)φp ≤ 0 (13)
defined for t ∈ [0, T (x0 )]; x(t) ∈ N \ {0}, for t ∈ [0, T (x0 )];
and limt→T (x0 ) x(t) = 0. If D = N = Rn , the origin is said to where φ̇ = [φ̇1 , . . . , φ̇N ]T , v̂˙ = [v̂˙ 1 , . . . , v̂˙ N ]T , and φp = [φp1 ,
be a globally finite-time-stable equilibrium. . . . , φpN ]T . The first inequality is from the fact that L(A) ≥ 0
Lemma 1: Suppose that there exist a continuously differen- by Lemma 4. Because V̇ < 0 at v̂i = v̂j , v̂i → v̂j is t → ∞.
tiable function V : D → R, real number k > 0 and α ∈ (0, 1), Velocity consensus algorithm (8b) is an asymptotical conver-
and a neighborhood U ⊂ D of the origin such that V is positive gence. Moreover, we suppose that V = 0, which implies that
definite on U and V̇ + kV α is negative semidefinite on U . φi = 0. Then, we can get
Then, the origin is a finite-time-stable equilibrium of system
ẋ = f (x(t)). Moreover, if T is the settling time, then T (x0 ) ≤ V̇ γφp T L(A)φp
− =  2p
(1/k(1 − α))V (x0 )1−α for all x0 in the open neighborhood of V
2p
p+1 N p+1 p+1
1
p+1 i=1 |φ i |
the origin.
Lemma 2: For any real numbers xi , i = 1, . . . , n, and 0 < γφp T L(A)φp
b ≤ 1, the following inequality holds: ≥ 
ρ1 N i=1 |φi |
2p

(|x1 | + · · · + |xn |)b ≤ |x1 |b + · · · + |xn |b . = Π(φi )

When b = p/q ≤ 1, where p > 0 and q > 0 are odd integers, where ρ1 = (1/(p + 1))(2p/(p+1)) . Let M = {ζ|ζ T ζ = 1 and
we have ζ = (φp /φp 2 )}, which is a bounded closed set. For any
x ∈ M , if xT L(A)x = 0, we will derive φp T L(A)φp = 0.
|xb − y b | ≤ 21−b |x − y|b . According to the proof process of asymptotical stability, we
have φ = 0, which implies that x = 0. Then, x ∈ / M , which is a
Lemma 3: Let c and d be positive real numbers, and contradiction. Therefore, for any x ∈ M , we have xT L(A)x =
γ(x, y) > 0 be a real-valued function. Then 0. Since function xT L(A)x, where xT L(A)x = 0, is conti-
nuous with respect to x and for any x ∈ M , minx∈M xT L(A)x,
cγ(x, y)|x|c+d dγ −c/d (x, y)|y|c+d which is denoted by k1 , exists and is larger than zero. Then,
|x|c |y|d ≤ + .
c+d c+d because (φp T /φp 2 ) ∈ M , we can get (φp T /φp 2 )L(A)
(φp /φp 2 ) ≥ k1 . Hence
Let G = (ν, E, A) be a weighted undirected graph of order

N with the set of nodes ν = {ν1 , ν2 , . . . , νN }, the set of γk1 φp 22 γk1 N i=1 |φi |
2p
γk1
edges E ⊆ ν × ν, and a weighted adjacency matrix A = [aij ] Π(φi ) ≥ N =  N
= .
ρ1 i=1 |φi | 2p ρ1 i=1 |φi | 2p ρ1
with nonnegative adjacency elements aij . Let L(A) = [lij ] ∈
RN ×N denote the graph Laplacian of G = (ν, E, A). Graph Let k = (γk1 /ρ1) > 0, and then, we obtain V̇ +kV (2p/(p+1)) ≤ 0.
G = (ν, E, A) is used to model the communication topology By Lemma 1, v̂i → v̂j is t → ((1+p)/k(1−p))V(0)((1−p)/(1+p)) .
among the robots, and we have the following property [28]. Suppose that v̂i = v̂j = v0 = ẋ0 ∈ R2 when t > ((1 + p)/
Lemma 4: If G = (ν, E, A) is undirected and connected, k(1 − p))V (0)((1−p)/(1+p)) . We can make this assumption be-
then eigenvalue 0 is algebraically simple, and all other eigen- cause (8a) and (8b) is decoupled. Let ξi (t) = x̂i (t) − x0 (t), and
values are positive for L(A). then, get
The following theorem will show that coordinating control  p
algorithm (8) converges in finite time. ∂J
ξ˙i (t) = −β . (14)
Theorem 1: Consider coordinating control algorithm (8). ∂ξi
If the interaction topology G(ν, E, A) among the robots is
undirected and connected, the finite-time coordinating control Choose a Lyapunov candidate as
algorithm guarantees that potential J is minimized and that
v̂i → v̂j ∀ j ∈ {1, 2 . . . , N } within a finite-time interval. V = J.
Proof: For coordinating control algorithm (8), the virtual
position and the virtual velocity are decoupled. Hence, we will Along the state trajectory [see (14)], we can derive
first show thevirtual velocity consensus in finite time.  N    p+1
Let φi = N  ∂J 2 2
j=1 aij (v̂j − v̂i ) (i = 1, . . . , N ), and then, ob- V̇ ≤ −β   (15)
 ∂ξi 
tain φ = −L(A)v̂, where φ = [φ1 , . . . , φN ]T ∈ RN , and v̂ = i=1 2
LU et al.: FTMCS FOR ODOR SOURCE LOCALIZATION 5425

which means that Lyapunov function V is monotonically de- Hence

creasing for t > ((1 + p)/k(1 − p))V (0)((1−p)/(1+p)) . Hence,
k1 q − 21−q
ξi (t) will asymptotically converge to the local minimum of V̇ ≤ − |ξ1 |d
potential function J, which means that ξi − ξj 2 = d, i.e., 1+q
 1−q
xi − xj 2 = d. 2 q + k1 q 1
To show that xi − xj 2 = d is a finite-time-stable equi- + +21−q
|ξ2 |d + ξ22−q ui .
1+q k2
librium, we suppose that V (t) = 0, and then, let Υ1 =
−((dV (t)/dt)/V (t)((p+1)/2) ). Hence Let k1 > (21−q /q), k3 = ((k1 q + 21−q + 2q21−q )/(1 + q)),
and ξ22−q ui + k2 k3 |ξ2 |d = 0. Noticing that |ξ2 |d = ξ2d , we have
  p+1
N   ∂J 2 2 k1 q − 21−q  d 
β i=1  ∂ξi  V̇ ≤ − |ξ1 | + |ξ2 |d .
2 1+q
Υ1 ≥ p+1
J 2
Moreover
β
≥ 1 1
c
p+1
2
V ≤ |ξ1 |2 + 1 |ξ2 | .
2
2 (2 − q)k1
q

where the second inequality comes from the property of 1/q

the potential function. Let k  = (β/c((p+1)/2) , and we have Let k = max{(1/2), (1/(2 − q)k1 )}, and we derive
V̇ + k  V ((p+1)/2) ≤ 0. Hence, when t > ((1 + p)/k(1 − p))
V ≤ k|ξ1 |2 + k|ξ2 |2 .
V (0)((1−p)/(1+p)) + (2/k  (1 − p))J(0)((1−p)/2) , ξi (t) will
converge to the local minimum of potential function J in finite By Lemma 2, we have
time. 
d d  
The following theorem guarantees the finite-time conver- V 2 ≤ k 2 |ξ1 |d + |ξ2 |d .
gence of tracking control algorithm (9) [10].
Theorem 2: Consider robot dynamics (2) with control input Let k  = ((k1 q − 21−q )/k d/2 (1 + q)), and we obtain
(9). The finite-time tracking control algorithm guarantees that
V̇ + k  V
d
vi → v̂i and that xi → x̂i , i ∈ lN within a finite-time interval. 2 ≤ 0.
Proof: When t > ((1 + p)/k(1 − p))V (0)((1−p)/(1+p)) +

(2/k (1 − p))J(0)((1−p)/2) , let x1 = xi − x̂i and x2 = vi − By Lemma 1, the system [see (2)] is finite-time stable with
v̂i , and consider the following Lyapunov candidate as control input (9). 
Furthermore, we will give the following theorems that can
x2  indicate the disturbance rejection performance of finite-time co-
1 1 2−q
V = x21 + s1/q − x∗2 1/q ds (16) ordinating control algorithm (8) and finite-time tracking control
2 k2 algorithm (9) [13].
x∗
2 Theorem 3: Consider the coordinating control algorithm
with disturbance given by
where q = ((2a − 1)/(2a + 1)); x∗2 = −k1 xq1 , where k1 > 0;  p
1/q ∂J
and k2 = 21−q (2 − q)k1 > 0. x̂˙ i (t) = v̂i (t) − β + hi (t) (18)
Along the state trajectory [see (9)], we have ∂ x̂i
⎛ ⎞p
 2−q N
1 1 1 v̂˙ i (t) = γ ⎝ aij (v̂j − v̂i )⎠ + di (t) (19)
V̇ =x1 x2 + x2q − x∗2 q ui
k2 j=1

1 x2  1−q where hi and di (t) are the external disturbance of the ith robot,
1 ∂x∗ q
s q − x∗2 1/q and we assume that |hi (t)| ≤ l1 < +∞ and that |di (t)| ≤
1
− (2 − q)x2 2 ds. (17)
k2 ∂x1 l2 < +∞ for i ∈ {1, 2, . . . , N }. If the interaction topology
x∗
G(ν, E, A) among the robots is undirected and connected, the
2

velocity mismatch and position mismatch of the ith robot will

Let ξ1 = x1 , ξ2 = x2 − x∗2 1/q , and d = q + 1. By Lemma 2
1/q
converge to regions Q1 and Q2 , respectively, as follows:
and Lemma 3, we have ⎧   p1 ⎫
⎨ L(A)2 l2 N 2
1−p ⎬

21−q 1 21−q q Q1 = inf |φi | ≤ (20)
V̇ ≤ − k1 − |ξ1 |d + ξ22−q ui + |ξ2 |d +|x2 ||ξ2 | ⎩i=1,...,N γk1 ⎭
1+q k2 1+q
   p1 
 ∂J  l1
where 
Q2 =   ≤ (21)

∂ x̂i 2 β

k1 q k1
|x2 ||ξ2 | ≤ 21−q
+ |ξ2 |d + |ξ1 |d . N
1+q 1+q where φi = j=1 aij (v̂j − v̂i ) (i = 1, . . . , N ).
5426 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2014

Proof: The analysis procedure is similar to that of the Case 2 : |ξ2 |d ≤ (((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q − 21−q )))((q+1)/(2q−1)) .
proof of Theorem 1, except for the appearance of the distur- Then, we can obtain |ξ1 |d ≥ (((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q −
bance. Substituting the protocol [see (19)] into V̇ in (13) and 21−q )))((q+1)/(2q−1)) . Substituting the aforementioned
following similar steps, we have inequality into (22), we obtain V̇ < 0. Similarly, when
t > t∗ , (x1 , x2 ) ∈ Q1 . From Theorem 2, one can see
V̇ = −γφpT L(A)φp − φpT L(A)d
that V d/2 ≤ k d/2 (|ξ1 |d + |ξ2 |d ), which implies that V <
√
≤ −γk1 φ2p p k(((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q − 21−q )))(2/(2q−1)) when t > t∗ .
2 + L(A) l2 N φ2
Therefore, we will calculate the tracking errors in the
√
where d = [d1 , . . . , dN ], and d2 ≤ l2 N . If the velocity following:
mismatch φi of the ith robot satisfies φi ∈/ Q1 , we have  2q−1
√
1
(1 + q)l
 √  p1 |x1 | ≤ 2k .
L(A) l2 N k2 (k1 q − 21−q )
φ2 >
γk1 ∗1/q
In (16), we have |s1/q − x2 | ≥ (2q−1 |s − x∗2 |)1/q . As-
sume that x2 ≥ x∗2 , and then, derive c1 V (t) ≥ |x2 − x∗2 |2/q ,
which can derive V̇ < 0. Therefore, the velocity mismatch of
where c1 = (((k2 )/q)2((q −2q+2)/q) ). When x2 ≤ x∗2 , the same
2

the ith robot will converge to region Q1 . Similarly, the position

results can be obtained. Therefore
mismatch of the ith robot will converge to region Q2 . √ 
Remark 6: If adjusting γ and β such that L(A)2 l2 N <  q q
 q (1 + q)l
2q−1
q

γk1 and l1 < β, then convergence regions Q1 and Q2 can be |x2 | ≤ c12 + k1 2 2 k 2 .
k2 (k1 q − 21−q )
rendered as small as desired, where √ Q1 and Q2 are defined
in Theorem 3. When L(A)2 l2 N  γk1 and l1  β, the This theorem is finished. 
finite-time coordinating control algorithm does not have any Remark 7: Similar to Remark 6, in this case, we can select
prominent advantages over the asymptotically linear coordinat- q to approximate to 0.5 such that expression
√ 1/(2q − 1) in Ω1
ing control algorithm. However, due to the control saturation is bigger than 1, which can√ make 2k(((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q −
constraints, γ and β are not selected to be sufficiently large. 21−q )))(1/(2q−1))  ((2l 2k)/(k2 (k1 − 1))) if we assume
In this case, adjusting parameter p can obviously improve the that (((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q − 21−q ))) < 1.
performance of disturbance rejection of the finite-time coordi-
nating control algorithm.
VI. O DOR S OURCE L OCALIZATION
Theorem 4: Consider the system [see (2)] with disturbance
di (t) that satisfies |di (t)| ≤ l < +∞. The convergence region In this section, we will first introduce Farrell’s odor model
of tracking errors is given by and illustrate the influence of wind and temperature on odor
  2q−1 dispersion. Then, the simulation is divided into two parts, i.e.,
√
1
(1+q)l one part where the simulation environment is without obstacles
Ω1 = |xi − x̂i | ≤ 2k |vi − v̂i |
k2 (k1 q−21−q ) and the other part where the simulation environment is with
 q  q 2qq−1  obstacles. It should be pointed out that the parameters of the
q (1+q)l FTMCS are set in the following. For the parallel motion, the
≤ c1 +k1 2 2 k 2
2

k2 (k1 q−21−q ) parameters can be found in Example 1, except for d = 12 and

r = 1.2d for the environment without obstacles, and d = 7 and
where c1 = (k2 /q)2((q −2q+2)/q) .
2
r = 1.2d for the environment with obstacles. For the circular
Proof: The analysis procedure is similar to that of the motion, the parameters
√ can be also found in Example 2, except
proof of Theorem 2, except for the appearance of the distur- for R = 10, d = 2R 1 − cos(2π/5), r = 1.2d, and ω0 =
bance. Following similar steps, we have 0.1 for the environment with or without obstacles. Moreover,
we use a circle where the real position of the odor source is
k1 q − 21−q  d  l viewed as a center with a predefined radius of 1 m as one of
V̇ ≤ − |ξ1 | + |ξ2 |d + |ξ2 |2−q . (22)
1+q k2 the termination conditions, which means that the search task is
Define finished if any robot enters the circle. (The other termination
  condition is the maximal search time of 1000 s.)
 q+1 
2q−1

 d (1 + q)l
Q1 = (x1 , x2 ) |ξ1 | + |ξ2 | <
d
.
 k2 (k1 q − 21−q ) A. Description of Simulation Environment

If (x1 , x2 ) ∈
/ Q1 , we have |ξ1 |d + |ξ2 |d ≥ ((1 + q)l/k2 (k1 q −
1−q ((q+1)/(2q−1))
2 )) . Moreover, consider the following two
cases.
Case 1 : |ξ2 |d ≥ (((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q − 21−q )))((q+1)/(2q−1)) .
Then, we can derive that |ξ2 |d ≥ (((1 + q)l)/(k2 (k1 q −
21−q )))|ξ2 |2−q , which implies that V̇ < 0. Hence, there
exists time t∗ such that we have (x1 , x2 ) ∈ Q1 when t > t∗ .
In terms of odor dispersion studies, Farrell et al. [6] modeled
the movement of the filaments released by the odor source (see
[6] for details), which is given by
ṗi = va + vi (23)
where pi = (x, y) is the ith filament location, vi = (vix , viy )
presents the dispersion velocity of the ith filament relative to the
LU et al.: FTMCS FOR ODOR SOURCE LOCALIZATION 5427

TABLE III illustrate the comparison results between the proposed FTMCS
PARAMETERS OF FARRELL’ S O DOR D ISPERSION M ODEL
and the other chosen algorithms under the search environment
without obstacles.
The search process of the robot group controlled by the
FTMCS is illustrated in Fig. 6. In Fig. 6(a), the initial positions
of the robot group are set at the upper right-hand corner in the
search region. In Fig. 6(b), the parallel motion is used to track
the plume and move along the plume according to the probable
positions of the odor source. In Fig. 6(c), the circular motion
TABLE IV
E IGHT S CENARIOS
is used to search for odor clues. In particular, in the circular
motion, we use (12) as the coordinating control algorithm.
Finally, in Fig. 6(d), the robot group finds the odor source.
Then, we will compare the search efficiency of the multirobot
system coordinated by the FTMCS with several selected algo-
rithms that include the charged PSO (CPSO) algorithm [12], the
probability PSO with information-sharing mechanism (PPSO-
IM) algorithm [16], the wind utility I angle = 45 (WUI-45)
[12], the wind utility II (WUII) [12], the learning PSO (LPSO)
centerline and can be modeled by using a colored noise process algorithm [17], and the PSO algorithm [20]. The parameters
with a given spectral density (σix , σiy ), and va = (vax , vay ) of the six algorithms can be found in [12], [16], [17], and
denotes the advection velocity, which is calculated by [20], respectively. For all the algorithms, the robot group will
search for odor clues along the direction of the y-axis from the
∂vax ∂vax ∂vax 1 ∂ 2 vax 1 ∂ 2 vax initial positions (the upper right-hand corner) to (80 m, 0 m).
=−vax −vay + Kx + K y
∂t ∂x ∂y 2 ∂x2 2 ∂y 2 Once odor clues are detected by any robot, these algorithms
∂vay ∂vay ∂vay 1 ∂ 2 vay will start to run. In Table V, the success rates obtained by
=−vax −vay + Kx
∂t ∂x ∂y 2 ∂x2 the seven algorithms are shown. Fig. 7 shows less search time
2 obtained from the FTMCS. In Fig. 8, one can see that the robots
1 ∂ vay
+ Ky (24) coordinated by the FTMCS consume lesser energy than those
2 ∂y 2
coordinated by other compared algorithms.
where Kx and Ky represent diffusivity and are assumed to be
the constants.
We will use Farrell’s odor dispersion model to build the sim- C. Motion Process and Results With Obstacles
ulation environment whose parameters are shown in Table III, In this section, we consider two types of obstacles, i.e.,
where C1, C2, C3, and C4 denote the different initial wind the rectangle and ellipse obstacles. Because the ellipse can be
velocities, and σ1 , σ2 , σ3 , and σ4 refer to the different spectral contained by a rectangle, the rectangle obstacle, as an example,
densities. In the odor model, the time-varying wind has been is used to illustrate how the multirobot system controlled by the
considered in (24), which means that the aerodynamics have proposed FTMCS avoids obstacles. In order to avoid rectangle
been considered. In addition, the temperature will put an impact obstacles, we use the method in [21] to extend the potential
on dispersion velocity vi in (23), which means that the higher function.
temperature will enable the filaments to quickly disperse. In ad- In the following, we choose two scenarios to test the pro-
dition, the dispersion velocity can be estimated by the different posed FTMCS. Each scenario has eight obstacles that can be
spectral density shown in Table III. The higher spectral density used to describe the trees and buildings. Fig. 9 shows the
means a faster dispersion velocity. first scenario, where five robots run at the environment with
In the following simulations, we will validate the influence of rectangle and ellipse obstacles. In Fig. 9, the parallel and
environmental characteristics, such as aerodynamics, tempera- circular motions have been explicitly shown. Similarly, Fig. 10
ture, and obstacles, on the proposed FTMCS. In Table IV, we shows the simulation results for scenario 2. In particular, in
have listed eight cases where the aerodynamics and temperature Fig. 10(b), the circular motion is used to search for odor clues,
of the search environment have been considered. For example, whereas the parallel motion is employed to trace the plume
for Case 4, the wind velocity is faster, and the dispersion veloc- in Fig. 10(c). Fig. 11 gives the results of eight cases for the
ity is also faster, which will result in a wider and fast fluctuant search time and consumed energy for the two scenarios. From
plume. On the other hand, for Case 2, the wind velocity and the the simulation results, one can see that the proposed FTMCS
dispersion velocity are smaller, which will result in a narrower has better robustness for the environment with obstacles.
and gradually changed plume. Correspondingly, the other cases,
such as Cases 4 and 2, can be explained.
VII. C ONCLUSION
B. Search Process and Comparison Results Without Obstacles We have developed an FTMCS to deal with the problem
In this section, we will first show the search process of the of odor source localization. First, we have proposed a motion
robot group controlled by the proposed FTMCS. Then, we will control architecture where there are two important modules,
5428 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2014

Fig. 6. Search process of five robots under the environment without obstacles. (a) T = 0 s. (b) T = 61 s. (c) T = 143 s. (d) T = 162 s.
TABLE V
S UCCESS R ATES ( IN PERCENTAGES ) BASED ON 50 RUNS

Fig. 7. Search time for the eight cases. (a) Case 1. (b) Case 2. (c) Case 3. (d) Case 4. (e) Case 5. (f) Case 6. (g) Case 7. (h) Case 8.

Fig. 8. Consumed energy for the eight cases. (a) Case 1. (b) Case 2. (c) Case 3. (d) Case 4. (e) Case 5. (f) Case 6. (g) Case 7. (h) Case 8.

Fig. 9. Search process of five robots under the environment with obstacles for scenario 1. (a) T = 0 s. (b) T = 125 s. (c) T = 157 s. (d) T = 173 s.
LU et al.: FTMCS FOR ODOR SOURCE LOCALIZATION
Fig. 10. Search process of five robots under the environment with obstacles for scenario 2. (a) T = 0 s. (b) T = 75 s. (c) T = 143 s. (d) T = 157 s.
Fig. 11. Search time and the consumed energy of five robots for the eight cases for scenarios 1 and 2. (a) Search time for scenario 1. (b) Consumed energy for
scenario 1. (c) Search time for scenario 2. (d) Consumed energy for scenario 2.
i.e., a coordinating control module and a tracking control
module. In the coordinating control module, we have devel-
oped a finite-time coordinating control algorithm such that the
virtual shape decided by the potential function and the virtual
velocity consensus can be reached in finite time. In the tracking
control module, we have derived a finite-time tracking control
algorithm such that the real velocity and the real position can
track the virtual velocity and the virtual position, respectively.
Second, on the basis of the motion control architecture, we
have developed a finite-time parallel motion control algorithm
and a finite-time circular motion control algorithm. Finally, we
have illustrated the effectiveness of the FTMCS for odor source
localization.
R EFERENCES
[1] I. Bayezit and B. Fidan, “Distributed cohesive motion control of flight
vehicle formations,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 12, pp. 5763–
5772, Dec. 2013.
[2] Y. Cao and W. Ren, “Distributed coordinated tracking with reduced in-
teraction via a variable structure approach,” IEEE Trans. Autom. Control,
vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 33–48, Jan. 2012.
[3] Y. Cao, W. Ren, and Z.-Y. Meng, “Decentralized finite-time sliding mode
estimators and their applications in decentralized finite-time formation
tracking,” Syst. Control Lett., vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 522–529, Sep. 2010.
[4] K. D. Do, “Flocking for multiple elliptical agents with limited com-
munication ranges,” IEEE Trans. Robot., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 931–942,
Oct. 2011.
[5] H. Du, S. Li, and C. Qian, “Finite-time attitude tracking control of space-
craft with application to attitude synchronization,” IEEE Trans. Autom.
Control, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 2711–2717, Nov. 2011.
[6] J. A. Farrell, J. Murlis, X. Z. Long, W. Li, and T. Ring, “Filament-based
atmospheric dispersion model to achieve short time-scale structure of odor
plumes,” Environ. Fluid Mech., vol. 2, no. 1/2, pp. 143–169, Jun. 2002.
[7] J. L. Fernández-Martínez and E. García-Gonzalo, “Stochastic stability
analysis of the linear continuous and discrete PSO models,” IEEE Trans.
Evol. Comput., vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 405–423, Jun. 2011.
[8] J. Ferruz, V. M. Vega, A. Ollero, and V. Blanco, “Reconfigurable control
architecture for distributed systems in the hero autonomous helicopter,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 5311–5318, Dec. 2011.
[9] S. Hong, Y. Oh, D. Kim, and B.-J. You, “Real-time walking pattern
generation method for humanoid robots by combining feedback and feed-
forward controller,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 355–
364, Jan. 2014.
[10] X. Huang, W. Lin, and B. Yang, “Global finite-time stabilization of a class
of uncertain nonlinear systems,” Automatica, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 881–888,
May 2005.
5429
[11] Q. Hui, “Finite-time rendezvous algorithms for mobile autonomous
agents,” IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 207–211,
Jan. 2011.
[12] W. Jatmiko, K. Sekiyama, and T. Fukuda, “A PSO-based mobile robot
for odor source localization in dynamic advection-diffusion with obstacles
environment: Theory, simulation and measurement,” IEEE Comput. Intell.
Mag., vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 37–51, May 2007.
[13] S.-H. Li, H.-B. Du, and X.-Z. Lin, “Finite-time consensus for multi-agent
systems with double-integrator dynamics,” Automatica, vol. 47, no. 8,
pp. 1706–1712, Aug. 2011.
[14] Q. Lu and Q.-L. Han, “Cooperative control of a multi-robot system for
odor source localization,” in Proc. 37th Annu. Conf. IEEE Ind. Electron.
Soc., Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 2011, pp. 2284–2289.
[15] Q. Lu and Q.-L. Han, “Decision-making in a multi-robot system for odor
source localization,” in Proc. 37th Annu. Conf. IEEE Ind. Electron. Soc.,
Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 2011, pp. 74–79.
[16] Q. Lu and Q.-L. Han, “A probability particle swarm optimizer
with information-sharing mechanism for odor source localization,” in
Proc. 18th World Congr. Int. Fed. Autom. Control, Milan, Italy, 2011,
pp. 9440–9445.
[17] Q. Lu and P. Luo, “A learning particle swarm optimization for odor
source localization,” Int. J. Autom. Comput., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 371–380,
Aug. 2011.
[18] Q. Lu, S. Liu, X. Xie, and J. Wang, “Decision-making and finite-time
motion control for a group of robots,” IEEE Trans. Cybern., vol. 43, no. 2,
pp. 738–750, Apr. 2013.
[19] R. C. Luo and O. Chen, “Mobile sensor node deployment and asyn-
chronous power management for wireless sensor networks,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 2377–2385, May 2012.
[20] L. Marques, U. Nunes, and A. T. de Almeida, “Particle swarm-based
olfactory guided search,” Auton. Robots, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 277–287,
Jun. 2006.
[21] R. Olfati-Saber, “Flocking for multi-agent dynamic systems: Algorithms
and theory,” IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 401–420,
Mar. 2006.
[22] S. Pang and J. A. Farrell, “Chemical plume source localization,” IEEE
Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern. B, Cybern., vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 1068–1080,
Oct. 2006.
[23] B. Ranjbar-Sahraei, F. Shabaninia, A. Nemati, and S.-D. Stan, “A novel
robust decentralized adaptive fuzzy control for swarm formation of multi-
agent systems,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 3124–3134,
Aug. 2012.
[24] W. Ren and R. Beard, Distributed Consensus in Multi-Vehicle Cooperative
Control–Theory and Applications. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag,
2008.
[25] H. Rezaee and F. Abdollahi, “A decentralized cooperative control scheme
with obstacle avoidance for a team of mobile robots,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 347–354, Jan. 2014.
[26] Z. Wang and D. Gu, “Cooperative target tracking control of multiple
robots,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 3232–3240,
Aug. 2012.
5430 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2014

[27] A. Widyotriatmo and K.-S. Hong, “Navigation function-based control of
multiple wheeled vehicles,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 5,
pp. 1896–1906, May 2011.
[28] F. Xiao, L. Wang, J. Chen, and Y.-P. Gao, “Finite-time formation control
for multi-agent systems,” Automatica, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 2605–2611,
Nov. 2009.
[29] S. Yang, A. Zhu, and G. Yuan, “A bioinspired neurodynamics-based ap-
proach to tracking control of mobile robots,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 3211–3220, Aug. 2012.
[30] H. Zhang, F. L. Lewis, and Z. Qu, “Lyapunov, adaptive, and optimal
design techniques for cooperative systems on directed communication
graphs,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 3026–3041,
Jul. 2012.
Xiaogao Xie (M’10) received the B.Sc., M.Sc.,
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1997,
2000, and 2005, respectively.
From 2005 to 2007, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow
with the College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang
University. In 2007, he joined Hangzhou Dianzi
University, Hangzhou, China, where he is currently
an Associate Professor with the School of Automa-
tion. His research interests include nonlinear control,
efficiency power conversion, and renewable-energy
conversion technology.

Shirong Liu received the B.Sc. degree in electrical

Qiang Lu (M’11) received the B.Eng. and Ph.D. engineering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,
degrees in electrical engineering from the East China China, in 1978; the M.Sc. degree in industrial au-
University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, tomation from Chongqing University, Chongqing,
China, in 2000 and 2007, respectively, and the Ph.D. China, in 1986; and the Ph.D. degree in system and
degree in computer science from Central Queensland control from the East China University of Science
University, Rockhampton, Australia, in 2013. and Technology, Shanghai, China, in 2000.
In 2007, he joined Hangzhou Dianzi University, Since 2005, he has been with Hangzhou Dianzi
Hangzhou, China, where he is currently an Asso- University, Hangzhou, where he is currently a Full
ciate Professor with the School of Automation. His Professor with the School of Automation and the
research interests include multirobot systems, non- Director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering and
linear control, and swarm intelligence. Automation. From 1978 to 1986, he was with Chongqing University, where he
was a Teacher with the School of Electrical Engineering. From 1987 to 2005,
he was with Ningbo University, Ningbo, China, where he was a Lecturer from
Qing-Long Han (SM’13) received the B.Sc. degree 1987 to 1992, an Associate Professor from 1992 to 2000, and a Full Professor
in mathematics from Shandong Normal University, with the Faculty of Information Science and Technology from 2000 to 2005. His
Jinan, China, in 1983, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. current research interests include autonomous robotics and intelligent control,
degrees in electrical engineering from the East China system modeling, optimization and control, and distributed renewable-energy
University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, electric power systems.
China, in 1992 and 1997, respectively.
From September 1997 to December 1998, he was
a Postdoctoral Researcher Fellow with Laboratoire
d’Automatique et d’Informatique Industrielle, École
Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Poitiers (for-
merly École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Poitiers),
Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France, where he held a Visiting Professor posi-
tion. From January 1999 to August 2001, he was a Research Assistant Professor
with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, School of En-
gineering, Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA.
In September 2001, he joined Central Queensland University, Rockhampton,
Australia, where he is currently a Professor with the School of Engineering and
Technology; the Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) of the Higher Ed-
ucation Division; and the Director of the Centre for Intelligent and Networked
Systems, Institute of Research Industries and Sustainability. In March 2010,
he was appointed Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) Scholar Chair Professor by the
Chinese Ministry of Education. In August 2011, he was appointed “100 Talents
Program” Chair Professor by the Shanxi Province of China. He held a Chair
Professor position with Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China, and
with Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China. He also held a Guest Professor
position with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China;
the East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China; and
Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include
networked control systems, time-delay systems, neural networks, multiagent
systems, and complex dynamical systems.