Consensus on the 2-Sphere

This paper investigates the consensus problem of a multi-agent system whose states evolve on the 2-Sphere. To design the consensus protocol, we associate to each agent a virtual system whose virtual state communicates with its neighbors. Then, we use the virtual state as a reference for the actual system. The communication between the virtual agents is modeled by an undirected graph. The stability analysis shows that the agents reach consensus with an exponential convergence rate. We provide simulation results that validate the effectiveness of the proposed consensus algorithm.