  This work targets the problem of odor source localization by multi-agent
systems. A hierarchical cooperative control has been put forward to solve the
problem of locating source of an odor by driving the agents in consensus when
at least one agent obtains information about location of the source. Synthesis
of the proposed controller has been carried out in a hierarchical manner of
group decision making, path planning and control. Decision making utilizes
information of the agents using conventional Particle Swarm Algorithm and
information of the movement of filaments to predict the location of the odor
source. The predicted source location in the decision level is then utilized to
map a trajectory and pass that information to the control level. The
distributed control layer uses sliding mode controllers known for their
inherent robustness and the ability to reject matched disturbances completely.
Two cases of movement of agents towards the source, i.e., under consensus and
formation have been discussed herein. Finally, numerical simulations
demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed hierarchical distributed control.
