Many applications for cooperative multi-agent networks require the agents to arrange themselves into some spatial pattern. This can include alignment of orientations and velocities for flocking behaviors, or specific formations like spacecraft constellations for sensing or vehicle platoons for autonomous driving. The formation control problem seeks to design distributed control strategies for each agent that ensure the entire ensemble can arrange into the desired formation.
A fundamental challenge for solving the formation control problem relates to the sensing and control architecture for the multi-agent system. Our approach is to leverage results from rigidity theory. Rigidity theory studies the solution of a set of geometric constraints on a discrete configuration of points in an Euclidean space. These constraints can include distance or bearing constraints between pairs of points. Of interest in rigidity theory is to determine whether the set of polynomial equations representing these constraints (i) has a solution (independence); (ii) has locally isolated solutions (rigidity); or (iii) has exactly one solution in the given space up to isometric motions (global rigidity).
Our research explores various aspects of rigidity theory and formation control. Topics include:
- Formation control using bearing sensing and bearing rigidity theory.
- Alternative architectures exploiting symmetry found in formations.
- Dynamic controllers to ensure the rigidity property is maintained in a multi-robot formation with uncertain environments.
- Formations consisting of heterogeneous agent types with different sensing capabilities.



Related Publications:
- Z. Martinez and D. Zelazo, “Symmetry-Constrained Formation Maneuvering,” in 64th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences, Haifa, Israel, Mar. 2025.
- J. Shi and D. Zelazo, “Extending the Leader-First Follower Structure for
Bearing-only Formation Control on Directed Graphs,” 2025.
- D. Zelazo, S.-ichi Tanigawa, and B. Schulze, “Forced Symmetric Formation Control,” IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 1–12, 2025.
- C. Xu, D. Zelazo, and B. Wu, “Distributed Prescribed-Time Coordinated Control of Spacecraft Formation Flying under Input Saturation,” Advances in Space Research, 74(5):2302–2315, 2024.
- C. Xu, D. Zelazo, and B. Wu, “Bearing-based formation control of second-order multiagent systems with bounded disturbances,” International Journal on Robust and Nonlinear Control, 34(1):167–199, 2024.
- J. Shi and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-only Formation Control with Directed Sensing,” in 63rd Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences, Haifa, Israel, May 2024.
- M. Sewlia and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-Based Formation Stabilization Using Event-Triggered Control,” International Journal on Robust and Nonlinear Control, 34(6):4375–4387, 2024.
- J. Shi, “Bearing-only Formation Control with Directed Sensing,” mastersthesis, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Autonomous Systems and Robotics, 2024.
- Z. Sun, S. Zhao, and D. Zelazo, “Characterizing bearing persistence in directed graphs,” in IFAC World Congress, Yokohama, Japan, Jul. 2023.
- D. Zelazo, B. Shulze, and S.-I. Tanigawa, “Stabilization of Symmetric Formations,” in IFAC World Congress, Yokohama, Japan, Jul. 2023.
- M. Fabris and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-based Autonomous Communication Relay Positioning under Field-of-View Constraints,” Advanced Control for Applications, 4(2):e103, 2022.
- B. Pozzan, G. Michieletto, A. Cenedese, and D. Zelazo, “Heterogeneous Formation Control: a Bearing Rigidity Approach,” in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Austin, Texas, Dec. 2021.
- G. Michieletto, A. Cenedese, and D. Zelazo, “A Unified Dissertation on Bearing Rigidity Theory,” IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 8(4):1624–1636, 2021.
- M. Sewlia, “Distributed Event-Triggered Control for Multi-Agent Systems with Second-Order Dynamics,” mastersthesis, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering Department, 2020.
- T. Ikeda, D. Zelazo, and K. Kashima, “Maximum Hands-Off Distributed Bearing-Based Formation Control,” in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Nice, France, Dec. 2019.
- D. Zelazo and S. Zhao, “Formation Control and Rigidity Theory,” Snapshots of Modern Mathematics from Oberwolfach, (12):1–16, 2019.
- A. Jain and D. Zelazo, “Temporal Circular Formation Control with Bounded Trajectories in a Uniform Flowfield,” in 27th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, Akko, Israel, Jul. 2019.
- Q. Van Tran, M. H. Trinh, D. Zelazo, D. Mukherjee, and H.-S. Ahn, “Finite-Time Bearing-Only Formation Control via Distributed Global Orientation Estimation,” IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 6(2):702–712, 2019.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Bearing Rigidity Theory and its Applications for Control and
Estimation of Network Systems: Life beyond distance rigidity,” IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 39(2):66–83, 2019.
- M. H. Trinh, S. Zhao, Z. Sun, D. Zelazo, B. D. O. Anderson, and H. Ahn, “Bearing-Based Formation Control of A Group of Agents with Leader-First Follower Structure,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 64(2):598–613, 2019.
- D. Goldenberg, “Cooperative Object Manipulation A Rigidity Approach,” mastersthesis, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering Department, 2019.
- D. Frank, D. Zelazo, and F. Allgöwer, “Bearing-Only Formation Control with Limited Visual Sensing: Two Agent Case,” in 7th IFAC Workshop on Distributed Estimation and Control in Networked System , Groningen, The Netherlands, Sep. 2018.
- M. H. Trinh, D. Muhkerjee, D. Zelazo, and H.-S. Ahn, “Formations on Directed Cycles with Bearing-Only Measurements,” International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 28(3):1074–1096, 2018.
- Y. Liu, J. M. Montenbruck, D. Zelazo, M. Odelga, S. Rajappa, H. H. Bülthoff, F. Allgöwer, and A. Zell, “A Distributed Control Approach to Formation Balancing and Maneuvering of Multiple Multirotor UAVs,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 34(4):870–882, 2018.
- D. Frank, “Bearing-only Formation Control with Limited View Constraints,” mastersthesis, University of Stuttgart, 2018.
- M. H. Trinh, D. Mukherjee, D. Zelazo, and H.-S. Ahn, “Finite-time bearing-only formation control,” in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 2017.
- S. Zhao, Z. Sun, D. Zelazo, M. H. Trinh, and H.-S. Ahn, “Laman Graphs are Generically Bearing Rigid in Arbitrary Dimensions,” in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 2017.
- J. M. Montenbruck, D. Zelazo, and F. Allgöwer, “Fekete Points, Formation Control, and the Balancing Problem,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 62(10):5069–5081, 2017.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Translational and Scaling Formation Maneuver Control via a Bearing-Based Approach,” IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 4(3):429–438, 2017.
- M. H. Trinh, D. Mukherjee, D. Zelazo, and H.-S. Ahn, “Planar Bearing-only Cyclic Pursuit for Target Capture,” in IFAC World Congress, Toulouse, France, Jul. 2017.
- D. Mukherjee, M. H. Trinh, D. Zelazo, and H.-S. Ahn, “Bearing-only Cyclic Pursuit in 2-D for Capture of Moving Target,” in 57th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences , Tel-Aviv, Israel, Feb. 2017.
- F. Schiano, A. Franchi, D. Zelazo, and P. R. Giordano, “A Rigidity-Based Decentralized Bearing Formation Controller for Groups of Quadrotor UAVs,” in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Daejeon, Korea, Sep. 2016.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Bearing Rigidity and Almost Global Bearing-Only Formation Stabilization,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 61(6):1255–1268, 2016.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Localizability and distributed protocols for bearing-based network localization in arbitrary dimensions,” Automatica, 69:334–341, 2016.
- O. Rozenheck, “Distance-Constrained Formation Tracking Control,” mastersthesis, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering Department, 2016.
- M. M. Montenbruck, D. Zelazo, and F. Allgöwer, “Retraction Balancing and Formation Control,” in 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Osaka, Japan, Dec. 2015.
- D. Zelazo, P. R. Giordano, and A. Franchi, “Bearing-Only Formation Control Using an SE(2) Rigidity Theory,” in 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Osaka, Japan, Dec. 2015.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-Based Formation Stabilization with Directed Interaction Topologies,” in 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Osaka, Japan, Dec. 2015.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-Based Formation Maneuvering,” in IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Sydney, Australia, Sep. 2015.
- O. Rozenheck, S. Zhao, and D. Zelazo, “A Proportional-Integral Controller for Distance-Based Formation Tracking,” in European Control Conference, Linz, Austria, Jul. 2015.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-Based Distributed Control and Estimation of Multi-Agent Systems,” in European Control Conference, Linz, Austria, Jul. 2015.
- O. Rozenheck, S. Zhao, and D. Zelazo, “Formation Velocity Tracking with Proportional Control,” in 55th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences , Haifa, Israel, Feb. 2015.
- S. Zhao and D. Zelazo, “Bearing-Constrained Formation Control Using Bearing Measurements,” in 55th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences, Haifa, Israel, Feb. 2015.
- D. Zelazo, A. Franchi, H. H. Bülthoff, and P. Robuffo Giordano, “Decentralized Rigidity Maintenance Control with Range-only Measurements for Multi-Robot Systems,” International Journal of Robotics Research, 34(1):105–128, 2015.
- D. Zelazo, A. Franchi, and P. R. Giordano, “Rigidity Theory in SE(2) for Unscaled Relative Position Estimation Using Only Bearing Measurements,” in European Control Conference, Strasbourg, France, Jun. 2014.
- D. Zelazo, A. Franchi, F. Allgöwer, H. H. Bülthoff, and P. Robuffo Giordano, “Rigidity Maintenance Control for Multi-Robot Systems,” in Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems, Sydney, Australia, Jul. 2012.
- D. Zelazo and F. Allgöwer, “Growing Optimally Rigid Formations,” in American Control Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2012.
- D. Zelazo, A. Rahmani, J. Sandhu, and M. Mesbahi, “Decentralized Formation Control via the Edge Laplacian,” in American Control Conference, Seattle, WA, Jun. 2008.