Mean-square consensus of hybrid multi-agent systems with noise and nonlinear terms over jointly connected topologies

This paper studies the mean-square consensus of second-order hybrid multi-agent systems over jointly connected topologies. Systems with time-varying delay and multiplicative noise are considered. The date sampling control technique is adopted. Through matrix transformation, a positive definite matrix transformed by the Laplacian matrix is obtained, where the Laplacian matrix is a connected subgraph divided by the jointly connected topologies. By using graph theory, matrix theory and Lyapunov stability theory, sufficient conditions and the upper bound of time delays for the mean-square consensus are obtained. Finally, several simulations are presented to demonstrate the validity of the control method.     

Distributed control of cluster lag consensus for first-order multi-agent systems on QUAD vector fields

This paper addresses the problem of cluster lag consensus for first-order multi-agent systems which can be formulated as moving agents in a capacity-limited network. A distributed control protocol is developed based on local information, and the robustness of the protocol is analyzed by using tools of Frobenius norm, Lyapunov functional and matrix theory. It is shown that when the root agents of the clusters are influenced by the active leader and the intra-coupling among agents is stronger enough, the multi-agent system will reach cluster lag consensus. Moreover, cluster lag consensus for multi-agent systems with a time-varying communication topology and heterogeneous multi-agent systems with a directed topology are studied. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed protocol is demonstrated by some numerical simulations.     

Matrix-weighted consensus for multi-agent systems with sampled-data

This paper researches the consensus issue for multi-agent systems on matrix-weighted directed fixed and undirected switching network topologies by sampled data control method which saves resources and is more practical. Using the sampled information, the distributed control laws are designed under two network topologies, respectively. Under directed fixed network topology, the consensus conditions based on the sampling period and the eigenvalues of Laplacian matrix are deduced by matrix theory and analysis theory. Under undirected switching network topology, by using Lyapunov stability theory, the consensus conditions based on the sampling period and switched network topologies are built. Lastly, two simulation examples are offered to verify the validity of the obtained results.     

Explicit condition for consensus of third-order discrete-time multi-agent systems without accelerated velocity measurements

This paper investigates the consensus problem for third-order discrete-time multi-agent systems in directed networks. For the case when each agent can only receive the information of position and velocity from its neighbors, necessary and sufficient conditions for consensus have been proposed. In contrast to the preceding work, we not only present the exact consensus value, but also illustrate the influence of scaling parameters and nonzero eigenvalues of the involved Laplacian matrix on consensus. Two numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.     

Containment control of fractional-order multi-agent systems with time-varying delays

In this paper, containment control problems of networked fractional-order multi-agent systems with time-varying delays are studied. The normalized directed graphs are employed to characterize the communication topologies. Two sampled-data based containment control protocols are proposed, which can overcome the time-varying delays and switching topologies. It is interestingly found that the decays of the closed-loop systems correspond to the Mittag-Leffler function and its approximation, which are the extensions of the exponential function and its approximation, respectively. Based on the algebraic graph theory, the properties of row-stochastic matrix, and the relation between the topologies and the matrices, some conditions for containment control are established. For the fixed topology, a necessary and sufficient condition is obtained; and for the switching topology, a sufficient condition is provided. Finally, the theoretical results are illustrated by several numerical simulations.     

Event-triggered control of leader-following and cluster consensus for MAS under directed graph with designable minimum event interval

This paper investigates the event-based consensus problems for linear multi-agent systems under directed network topology. First, a new event-triggered control method is proposed for the leader-following consensus problem of agents under directed graphs. Then this new method is applied to the cluster control problem under special topological conditions. The new event-based control scheme is better than some existing literature in the following aspects. 1) The graph only needs to contain a spanning tree instead of being required to be strongly connected graph or undirected, and the triggering function is state-dependent rather than time-dependent. 2) Some parameters are designable for the trade-off between the event interval and the performance of the controlled system. Besides, the optimization of some parameters is studied to reduce the trigger frequency. All the agents can achieve consensus with an exponential speed when communications among follower agents are intermittent, and Zeno behavior is excluded under the proposed method. 3) When applying this method to the cluster control problem, agents in the same cluster share the same form of triggering function. Cluster consensus can be achieved regardless of intra- and inter-cluster relative coupling strength under the event-triggered control framework.     

Distributed fixed-time control under directed graph using input shaping

This paper presents novel fixed-time controllers for the distributed tracking of multi-agent systems with double-integrator dynamics based on the input shaping technique under directed graphs. It is assumed that there is no cycle in the directed graph with a globally reachable leader. Distributed fixed-time controllers are designed for cases with various initial conditions by placing input shapers in all communication edges in the graph. Numerical simulations and experimental studies are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.     

Consensus of linear multi-agent systems based on full-order observer

This paper considers distributed consensus problem of multi-agent systems consisting of general linear dynamics with a time-invariant communication topology. A distributed full-order observer type consensus protocol based on relative output measurements of neighbor agents is proposed. It is found that the consensus problem of linear multi-agent systems with a directed communication topology having a spanning tree can be solved if and only if all subsystems are asymptotically stable. Some necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for ensuring consensus in multi-agent systems. The design technique is based on algebraic graph theory, Riccati inequality and linear control theory. Finally, simulation example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Semi-global cooperative cluster output regulation for heterogeneous multi-agent systems with input saturation

This paper investigates the semi-global cooperative cluster output regulation problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with input saturation, the exosystems for each cluster can be different. To avoid using global information (e.g., the minimal nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix) in the control protocol, an adaptive dynamic compensator is proposed to estimate exosystem’s state in fully distributed manner. A dynamic event-triggering mechanism with adaptive parameter is proposed in order to reduce the usage of communication resources. Low-gain feedback technique is utilized to deal with the influence of input saturation, and Lypunov-based stability analysis results are obtained. Moreover, it is formally shown that Zeno behavior can be excluded. The superiority of the proposed methods includes: the agents in each cluster are also heterogeneous, which is essentially different from [1]; the event-triggered control strategy does not depend on any global information; and the influence of saturation nonlinearity can be eliminated with low-gain feedback. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Spectral clustering with physical intuition on spring–mass dynamics

In this paper, we provide a new insight into clustering with a spring–mass dynamics, and propose a resulting hierarchical clustering algorithm. To realize the spectral graph partitioning as clustering, we model a weighted graph of a data set as a mass–spring dynamical system, where we regard a cluster as an oscillating single entity of a data set with similar properties. And then, we describe how oscillation modes are related with eigenvectors of a graph Laplacian matrix of the data set. In each step of the clustering, we select a group of clusters, which has the biggest number of constituent clusters. This group is divided into sub-clusters by examining an eigenvector minimizing a cost function, which is formed in such a way that subdivided clusters will be balanced with large size. To find k clusters out of non-spherical or complex data, we first transform the data into spherical clusters located on the unit sphere positioned in the (k−1)-dimensional space. In the sequel, we use the previous procedure to these transformed data. The computational experiments demonstrate that the proposed method works quite well on a variety of data sets, although its performance degrades with the degree of overlapping of data sets.     

Consensus analysis for multi-agent systems via periodic event-triggered algorithms with quantized information

In this article, a novel distributed event-triggered control protocol for the consensus of second-order multi-agent systems with undirected topology is studied. Based on the proposed control protocol, the event-triggered condition is evaluated only at every sampling instant. The control input for each agent will be updated with local information if and only if its condition is violated. Both ideal and quantized relative state measurements are considered under this framework. Some sufficient conditions for achieving consensus are derived using spectral properties of edge Laplacian matrix and the discrete-time Lyapunov function method. Finally, numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.     

Distributed optimization of general linear multi-agent systems with external disturbance

In this paper, we consider the distributed optimization problems with linear coupling constraint of general homogeneous and heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems under weighted-balanced and strongly connected digraphs. In order to control all agents converge to the optimal output, we propose distributed control laws, therein, the optimal output can make the global cost function reach minimum. Then we guarantee the convergence of the proposed algorithms by the properties of Laplacian matrix and Lyapunov stability theorem. Furthermore, we extend the result of heterogeneous linear multi-agent system to the case that dynamics of agents are subject to external disturbances, and prove that the algorithm designed by internal model principle can make all agents reach the optimal output exactly. Finally, we provide examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed algorithms.     

Finite-time positiveness and distributed control of Lipschitz nonlinear multi-agent systems

The finite-time positiveness and distributed control problem is studied for a class of Lipschitz nonlinear multi-agent systems. The objective is to design a suitable distributed controller which makes the closed-loop multi-agent systems be positive and finite-time stabilizable and satisfy the given H_∞ performance index. Sufficient conditions are initially established on the existence of the finite-time distributed controller by using proper multiple Lyapunov functions and the design criteria are presented in the form of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, an example of multi-agent systems with six agents is presented to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed methods.     

Finite-time consensus of neutrally stable multi-agent systems in the presence of input saturation

The problem of finite-time consensus of linear multi-agent systems subject to input saturation is investigated and two control protocols are presented for leaderless and leader-following cases, respectively. The leaderless multi-agent systems with proposed non-smooth protocol can achieve consensus in finite time. The consensus protocol designed for leader-following case with directed topology can solve the finite-time consensus problem, where a priori constraint is adopted to deal with input saturation. Furthermore, the settling time is explicitly derived using finite-time Lyapunov theory. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical results is illustrated with several numerical simulations.     

On algebraic connectivity of directed scale-free networks

In this paper, we study the algebraic connectivity of directed complex networks with scale-free property. Algebraic connectivity of a directed graph is the eigenvalue of its Laplacian matrix whose real part is the second smallest. This is known as an important measure for the diffusion speed of many diffusion processes over networks (e.g. consensus, information spreading, epidemics). We propose an algorithm, extending that of Barabasi and Albert, to generate directed scale-free networks, and show by simulations the relations between algebraic connectivity and network size, exponents of in/out-degree distributions, and minimum in/out degrees. The results are moreover compared to directed small-world networks, and demonstrated on a specific diffusion process, reaching consensus.     

Formation consensus for discrete-time heterogeneous multi-agent systems with link failures and actuator/sensor faults

In this paper, a distributed control protocol is presented for discrete-time heterogeneous multi-agent systems in order to achieve formation consensus against link failures and actuator/sensor faults under fixed and switching topologies. A model equivalent method is proposed to deal with the heterogeneous system consists of arbitrary order systems with different parameters. Based on graph theory and Lyapunov theory, stability conditions to solve formation consensus problem are developed for the underlying heterogeneous systems with communication link failures. In order to tolerate actuator/sensor faults, a distributed adaptive controller is proposed based on fault compensation. The desired control is designed by linear matrix inequality approach together with cone complementarity linearisation algorithm. After applying the new control scheme to heterogeneous systems under the directed topologies with link failures and faults, the resulting closed-loop heterogeneous system is validated to be stable. The effectiveness of the new formation consensus control strategy and its robustness are verified by simulations.     

Distributed formation control of double-integrator fractional-order multi-agent systems with relative damping and nonuniform time-delays

In this paper, distributed formation control problems are studied for double-integrator fractional-order multi-agent systems (DIFOMASs) with relative damping and nonuniform time-delays. The required state deviations of a group of multi-agent systems are achieved through a local state information interaction, which means that this group of multi-agent systems achieves formation control. In the context of this paper, the dynamic model is first established and the formation control protocol is designed for distributed formation control of DIFOMASs with relative damping under symmetric time-delays and asymmetric time-delays. Then, some sufficient conditions for achieving distributed formation control of DIFOMASs are acquired with the help of graph theory, matrix theory, stability theory and frequency-domain theory. In the end, two simulation examples are performed to verify the efficacy of our proposed method.     

Finite-time scaled consensus tracking of a class of high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with unstable linearization

In this paper, we consider the finite-time scaled consensus tracking of a class of high-order nonlinear multiagent systems(MASs)who owns unstable modes in its Jacobian linearized system. The presence of unstable linearization makes the high-order MASs in question essentially different from those in the existing works. Under a directed interaction topology, to overcome the difficulties caused by the asymmetry property of Laplacian matrix, the finite-time scaled consensus control scheme is developed by the modified addition of a power integrator method. Based on finite-time Lyapunov stability theorem and algebra graph theory, for high-order MASs with unstable linearization even in the presence of non-lipschitz nonlinear dynamic, all system states are bounded and the output tracking errors are finite-time uniformly ultimately bounded(FUUB). Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Event-based consensus for second-order multi-agent systems with actuator saturation under fixed and Markovian switching topologies

This paper studies the event-based consensus problem of second-order multi-agent systems with actuator saturation under fixed topology and Markovian switching topologies. By a model transformation, the consensus problem is first converted into the stability problem of the error system. Using discontinuous Lyapunov functional approach, two sufficient conditions on the consensus are derived for second-order multi-agent systems with fixed topology and Markovian switching topologies, respectively. The discontinuous Lyapunov functions take full account of the characteristics of the sawtooth delay, and thus lead to a less conservative consensus criterion. It is shown that the consensus condition depends on the parameters of sampling period, Laplacian matrix, and event-triggered parameter. In addition, this paper provides an effective method to co-design both the consensus controller and the event-triggered parameter. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm.