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.     

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.     

Cooperative control problem of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy multiagent systems via observer based distributed adaptive sliding mode control

In this paper, the consensus control problem of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy multiagent systems (MASs) is investigated by using an observer based distributed adaptive sliding mode control. A distributed nonfragile observer is put forward to estimate the unmeasured state of agents. Based on such an observer, a novel distributed integral sliding surface is designed to suppress the disturbance and uncertainty of T-S fuzzy MASs. In order to achieve the consensus objective, a nominal distributed protocol and an adaptive sliding mode controller are separately designed. Futhermore, the nominal distributed protocol solves the consensus control problem of T-S fuzzy MASs in the absence of disturbance and uncertainty by using the information of adjacent agents obtained by the observer, while the adaptive sliding mode controller suppresses the disturbance and uncertainty. Finally, the proposed method is applied to two examples. Example 1 verifies the superiority of the method by comparing with the fuzzy-based dynamic sliding mode controller. Example 2 is used to illustrate that our control scheme can effectively solve the consensus control problem of T-S fuzzy MASs.     

Event-triggered secure consensus for MASs based on a multi-sensor multi-rate sampling mechanism

This paper is concerned with event-triggered secure consensus for a class of linear multi-agent systems (MASs) under denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Different from some existing methods, a multi-sensor multi-rate (MSMR) sampling mechanism is introduced to sample system states of agents. A class of multi-rate observer is devised to deal with some problems involved, such as the asynchrony and the incompleteness of several state sub-vectors, caused by the MSMR sampling mechanism. By using the partially updated state information of each agent, a novel multi-rate event-triggered mechanism is proposed, in which the continuous monitoring of the combined measurement information is avoided. Then, an event-based distributed secure consensus control protocol is presented against DoS attacks for the MAS under a directed communication topology. By taking into account the information on the duration and frequency of the DoS attacks, a sufficient condition is established to design suitable control protocols such that consensus can be achieved. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Distributed consensus tracking control based on state and disturbance observations for mixed-order multi-agent mechanical systems

In this paper, we study the cooperative consensus control problem of mixed-order (also called hybrid-order) multi-agent mechanical systems (MMSs) under the condition of unmeasurable state, unknown disturbance and constrained control input. Here, the controlled mixed-order MMSs are consisted of the mechanical agents having heterogeneous nonlinear dynamics and even non-identical orders, which means that the agents can be of different types and their states to be synchronized can be not exactly the same. In order to achieve the ultimate synchronization of all mixed-order followers, we present a novel distributed adaptive tracking control protocol based on the state and disturbance observations. Wherein, a distributed state observer is used to estimate the followers’ and their neighbors’ unmeasurable states. And, a novel estimated-state-based disturbance observer (DOB) is proposed to reduce the effect of unknown lumped disturbance for the mixed-order MMSs. The proposed control protocol and observers are fully distributed and can be calculated for each follower locally. Lyapunov theory is used for proving the stability of the proposed control algorithm and the convergence of the cooperative tracking errors. A practical cooperative longitudinal landing control example of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented control protocol.     

Dynamic event-Based resilient consensus of networked lagrangian systems under DoS attacks

In this paper, the dynamic event-based resilient consensus control of the multiple networked Euler-Lagrangian (E-L) systems under the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks is considered. Compared with linear cyber-physical systems, nonlinear networked E-L systems are more complex and closer to actual mechanical systems. For the situation where the topology is a strongly connected directed topology, a controller based on a dynamic event-trigger mechanism is designed to achieve consensus control for the networked E-L system in the absence of DoS attacks. Sufficient conditions are presented, which can guarantee the closed-loop system be stable. Then the resilient consensus problem of event-based controllers under energy-constrained DoS attacks is analyzed. The conditions related to the duration and frequency of DoS attacks are given. Zeno behavior is proved does not exist in the proposed control scheme. Finally, some numerical simulation results are given for verifying the theoretical results.     

Protocol design for group output consensus of disturbed port-controlled Hamiltonian multi-agent systems

This paper considers the group output consensus problem for a class of disturbed port-controlled Hamiltonian multi-agent systems via a composite control method. The composite distributed control protocol is proposed by combining the damping injection and energy shaping method, the finite-time disturbance observer (FTDO) technique and distributed protocol, which makes the closed-loop Hamiltonian multi-agent systems asymptotically stable and the group outputs reach consensus. It is shown that many kinds of disturbances can be estimated accurately via the FTDO. The advantage is that this control scheme exhibits not only better robustness against disturbances, but also the nominal system recovery performance. Two illustrative examples reveal that the designed control protocol is effective.     

Interventional bipartite consensus on coopetition networks with unknown dynamics

In this paper, an interventional bipartite consensus problem is considered for a high-order multi-agent system with unknown disturbance dynamics. The interactions among the agents are cooperative and competitive simultaneously and thus the interaction network (just called coopetition network in sequel for simplicity) is conveniently modeled by a signed graph. When the coopetition network is structurally balanced, all the agents are split into two competitive subgroups. An exogenous system (called leader for simplicity) is introduced to intervene the two competitive subgroups such that they can reach a bipartite consensus. The unknown disturbance dynamics are assumed to have linear parametric models. With the help of the notation of a disagreement state variable, decentralized adaptive laws are proposed to estimate the unknown disturbances and a dynamic output-feedback consensus control is designed for each agent in a fully distributed fashion, respectively. The controller design guarantees that the state matrix of the closed-loop system can be an arbitrary predefined Hurwitz matrix. Under the assumption that the coopetition network is structurally balanced and the leader is a root of the spanning tree in an augmented graph, the bipartite consensus and the parameter estimation are analyzed by invoking a common Lyapunov function method when the coopetition network is time-varying according to a piecewise constant switching signal. Finally, simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.     

Event-triggered group consensus for multi-agent systems subject to input saturation

This paper investigates group consensus for leaderless multi-agent systems with non-identical dynamics. The consensus protocol is put forward in the form of the distributed event-triggered control subject to saturation, which depends on information from neighboring agents at event-triggered instants. In order to exclude the Zeno behavior and save resources, the given event-triggered condition is detected only at discrete sampling times, where the sampling intervals can be variable. Based on the graph theory, Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method and by adopting the free-weighting matrix technique, some sufficient group consensus criteria in terms of linear matrix inequalities are derived. Furthermore, optimization problems aiming at maximizing the event-triggered parameter and the consensus region are proposed. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Distributed consensus of a class of networked heterogeneous multi-agent systems

In this paper, we consider the consensus problem of a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems composed of the linear first-order and second-order integrator agents together with the nonlinear Euler–Lagrange (EL) agents. First, we propose a distributed consensus protocol under the assumption that the parameters of heterogeneous system are exactly known. Sufficient conditions for consensus are presented and the consensus protocol accounting for actuator saturation is developed. Then, by combining adaptive controller and PD controller together, we design a protocol for the heterogeneous system with unknown parameters (in the nonlinear EL dynamics). Based on graph theory, Lyapunov theory and Barbalat's Lemma, the stability of the controllers is proved. Simulation results are also provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.     

Consensus control via iterative learning for distributed parameter models multi-agent systems with time-delay

Most of the available results of iterative learning control (ILC) are that solve the consensus problem of lumped parameter models multi-agent systems. This paper considers the consensus control problem of distributed parameter models multi-agent systems with time-delay. By using the knowledge between neighboring agents, considering time-delay problem in the multi-agent systems, a distributed P-type iterative learning control protocol is proposed. The consensus error between any two agents in the sense of L² norm can converge to zero after enough iterations based on proposed ILC law. And then we extend these conclusions to Lipschitz nonlinear case. Finally, the simulation result shows the effectiveness of the control method.     

Output consensus of heterogeneous linear systems with quantized information

In this paper, we design two distributed output consensus controllers for heterogeneous linear systems based on internal model principle and then study the quantization effect on the controllers when uniform quantizers are used in the communication channels. The first controller considers the general situation when the internal model state matrix of the system may be unstable and the communication graphs are strongly connected directed graphs. We prove that the bound of the consensus error is proportional to the quantizer parameter with a coefficient related to the size of the network and the property of the communication graphs. The second controller considers the situation when the internal model state matrix is neutrally stable and the communication graphs are undirected connected graphs. In this case, we derive a better bound of the consensus error which is proportional to the quantizer parameter and the coefficient is unrelated to the size of the network when the linear systems are homogeneous. Simulation examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Distributed state estimator-based consensus tracking of multi-agent systems with exogenous disturbance

The consensus tacking problem for multi-agent systems with a leader of none control input and unknown control input is studied in this paper. By virtue of the relative state information of neighboring agents, state estimator and disturbance estimator are designed for each follower to estimate the system states and exogenous disturbance, respectively. Meanwhile, a novel control protocol based on two estimators is designed to make tracking error eventually converge to zero. Furthermore, the obtained results are further extended to the leader with unknown control input. A novel state estimator with adaptive time-varying gain is proposed such that consensus tracking condition is independent of the Laplacian matrix with regard to the communication topology. Finally, two examples are presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed control protocol.     

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.     

Consensus of fractional-order multiagent system via sampled-data event-triggered control

This paper investigates the consensus of fractional-order multiagent systems via sampled-data event-triggered control. Firstly, an event-triggered algorithm is defined using sampled states. Thus, Zeno behaviors can be naturally avoided. Then, a distributed control protocol is proposed to ensure the consensus of fractional-order multiagent systems, where each agent updates its current state based on its neighbors’ states at event-triggered instants. Furthermore, the pinning control technology is taken into account to ensure all agents in multiagent systems reach the specified reference state. With the aid of linear matrix inequalities (LMI), some sufficient conditions are obtained to guarantee the consensus of fractional-order multiagent system. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the theoretical analysis.     

Event-triggered consensus control for second-order multi-agent system subject to saturation and time delay

The event-triggered consensus control for second-order multi-agent systems subject to actuator saturation and input time delay, is investigated in this paper. Based on the designed triggering function, a distributed event-triggered control strategy is presented to drive the system to achieve consensus. Communication energy can be saved as the agents send their state information only at infrequent event instants, the continuous communication among agents is not necessary. Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is used together with linear matrix inequality technique to analyze the stability of the closed-loop error system. The results show that agents achieve exponentially consensus under the proposed controller. Furthermore, the bounds of solution are obtained by establishing the differential equation associated with the first delay interval. The initial domain is estimated by optimizing the linear matrix inequalities. Finally, simulation examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

Finite-time group consensus via pinning control for heterogeneous multi-agent systems with disturbances by integral sliding mode

In this paper, the finite-time group consensus for a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems (HMASs) with bounded disturbances is studied by designing a pinning control scheme with an integral sliding mode. For an HMAS without disturbance, a continuous finite-time consensus protocol with a pinning and grouping strategy is proposed. Under the designed control protocol, the HMAS achieves consensus according to the given grouping requirement in a finite time and the final states converge to the desired consistency values. The detailed theoretical proof is given on the strength of Lyapunov theory, LaSalle’s invariance principle and homogeneity with dilation principle. On this basis, this paper further introduces an integral sliding mode into finite-time group consensus protocol designed above such that the HMAS with one or more pinning agents can achieve accurate finite-time group consensus even if there exist uncertain bounded disturbances. It is noted that the control input is chattering-free. Two simulation examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.     

On consensus control of nonlinear multiagent systems satisfying incremental quadratic constraints

In this paper, we investigate the problem of leaderless consensus control for the multiagent systems whose nonlinear dynamics satisfying incremental quadratic constraints. A distributed dynamic consensus protocol, decided by communication among neighboring agents, is presented to render nonlinear agent consensus with appropriate coupling weights. Next, an observer-based distributed protocol is considered to ensure consensus of nonlinear system without knowing full state information. Further, extensions to consensus strategies with nonlinear dynamics for the leader-following fashion are also addressed. By comparison to the traditional nonlinear consensus control methodologies, the proposed approach generalizes the Lipschitz nonlinearity as well as the combined nonlinearity of one-sided Lipschitz condition and quadratic inner-boundness condition towards a more generalized type of nonlinearity, which shows us a less conservative result in the Lyapunov proof. Finally, the numerical simulations for six agents are illustrated to show the feasibility and performance of the proposed control protocol with or without the presence of the observer.     

Consensus control for a class of linear multiagent systems using a distributed integral sliding mode strategy

In this paper, a consensus framework is proposed for a class of linear multiagent systems subject to matched and unmatched uncertainties in an undirected topology. A linear coordinate transformation is derived so that the consensus protocol design can be conveniently performed. The distributed consensus protocol is developed by using an integral sliding mode strategy. Consensus is achieved asymptotically and all subsystem states are bounded. By using an integral sliding mode control, the subsystems lie on the sliding surface from the initial time, which avoids any sensitivity to uncertainties during the reaching phase. By use of an appropriate projection matrix, the size of the equivalent control required to maintain sliding is reduced which reduces the conservatism of the design. MATLAB simulations validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.     

Observer-based event-triggered tracking consensus of non-ideal general linear multi-agent systems

In this paper, the leader-following consensus problem of general linear multi-agent systems without direct access to real-time state is investigated. A novel observer-based event-triggered tracking consensus control scheme is proposed. In the control scheme, a distributed observer is designed to estimate the relative full states, which are used in tracking consensus protocol to achieve overall consensus. And an event-triggered mechanism with estimated state-dependent event condition is adopted to update the control signals so as to reduce unnecessary data communication. Based on the Lyapunov theorem and graph theory, the proposed event-triggered control scheme is proved to implement the tracking consensus when real-time state cannot direct obtain. Moreover, such scheme can exclude Zeno-behavior. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.