Cooperative containment control in time-delayed multi-agent systems with discrete-time high-order dynamics under dynamically changing topologies

This paper addresses the containment control problem for discrete-time high-order multi-agent systems (MASs) with dynamically changing topologies and time-varying delays. By considering the influence of switching topologies, a distributed containment control protocol that only involves the agent’s own information and its neighbors’ partial information is given to make all the followers enter and keep moving in the convex hull formed by the static leaders. A novel technique is employed to transform the high-order MAS with dynamically changing topologies into a switched augmented system with nonnegative coefficient matrices, and then convert the convergence problem of the switched augmented system to a product problem of infinite time-varying row stochastic matrices. With the help of graph theory and the properties of stochastic indecomposable and aperiodic (SIA) matrices, a sufficient condition in terms of communication topologies is derived, that is, the high-order containment control with dynamically changing topologies and time-varying delays can be achieved if the union of the effective communication topologies across any time intervals with some given length contains a spanning forest rooted at the leaders. Finally, computer simulations are conducted to illustrate the efficiency of the theoretical findings.     

Time-varying formation tracking for high-order multi-agent systems with switching topologies and a leader of bounded unknown input

Time-varying formation tracking problems for high-order multi-agent systems with switching topologies are investigated. Different from the previous work, the states of the followers form a predefined time-varying formation while tracking the state of the leader with bounded unknown control input. Besides, the communication topology can be switching, and the dynamics of each agent can have nonlinearities. Firstly, a nonlinear time-varying formation tracking control protocol is presented which is constructed using only local neighboring information. Secondly, an algorithm with four steps is proposed to design the time-varying formation tracking protocol, where the time-varying formation tracking feasibility condition is introduced. Thirdly, by using the Lyapunov theory, the stability of the proposed algorithm is proven. It is proved that the high-order multi-agent system with switching topologies achieves the time-varying formation tracking if the feasibility condition holds and the dwell time is larger than a positive constant. Finally, a numerical example with six followers and one leader is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.     

Consensus of multi-Agent systems with one-Sided lipschitz nonlinearity via nonidentical double event-Triggered control subject to deception attacks

As for the multi-agent systems (MASs) with time-varying switching subject to deception attacks, the leader-following consensus problem is studied in this article. The one-sided Lipschitz (OSL) condition is utilized for the nonlinear functions, which makes the results more general and relaxed than those obtained by Lipschitz condition. The nonidentical double event-triggering mechanisms (ETMs) are adopted for only a fraction of agents, and each agent transmits the data according to its own necessity. Semi-Markov process modeling with time-varying switching probability is adopted for switching topology and deception attacks occurring in transmission channel are considered. By using the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technology, sufficient conditions for MASs to achieve consensus in mean square are obtained. An effective algorithm is presented to obtain the event-based control gains. The merits of the proposed control scheme are demonstrated via a simulation example.     

Impulsive average-consensus of multi-agent systems with time-delays

In this paper, the impulsive average-consensus problem of first-order multi-agent systems with dynamically changing topologies is investigated. Continuous-time dynamics and impulsive protocols are both subjected to effects from nonuniform time-varying communication delays. By utilizing Razumikhin techniques and time-varying Lyapunov function method, some impulse-delay-dependent sufficient criteria for the average-consensus of multi-agent systems are derived. In addition, the discrete-time connection digraph is designed in terms of linear matrix inequalities for given impulsive sequences and some programming skills are used to make the discrete-time topology meet the needs of the actual environment. Numerical simulations are given to illustrate the effectiveness and validity of the theoretical results.     

Distributed tracking control of second-order multi-agent systems with sampled data

This paper studies the leader–follower consensus problem of second-order multi-agent dynamical systems with fixed and stochastic switching topologies in a sampled-data setting. A distributed linear consensus protocol is designed to track an active leader, where the current position information of neighbor agents and self-velocity data are utilized. A necessary and sufficient condition is established under fixed and directed topology for reaching consensus, which depends on the sampling period and control gain parameters. A sufficient condition is obtained under the Markov switching topology case. Finally, some numerical simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Event-triggered bipartite consensus for nonlinear multi-agent systems under switching topologies: A time-varying gain method

In this paper, the event-triggered bipartite consensus problem is investigated for nonlinear multi-agent systems under switching topologies, only part of topologies contain directed spanning tree rooted at the leader. First, a dynamic bipartite compensator is constructed based on relative output information to provide control signal. Then, the time-varying gain method is adopted to propose a compensator-based event-triggered control protocol without Zeno behavior. Notably, the control protocol proposed achieves the bipartite consensus while reducing update frequency effectively. Moreover, a low conservative switching law is designed by the topology-dependent average dwell time strategy, which fully considers the differences among topologies and provides an independent average dwell time for each topology. As an extension, the nonlinear multi-agent systems with non-zero input of leader are further studied. Finally, a practical example is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of proposed control protocol.     

Consensus for heterogeneous networked multi-agent systems with switching topology and time-varying delays

This paper investigates consensus problem for heterogeneous discrete linear time-invariant (LTI) multi-agent systems subjected to time-varying network communication delays and switching topology. A new two-stage consensus protocol is proposed based on stochastic, indecomposable and aperiodic (SIA) matrix and pseudo predictive scheme. With pseudo predictive scheme the network delay is compromised. Consensus analysis based on seminorm is provided. Results give conditions for such systems with periodic switching topology and time-varying delays to reach consensus. Highlights of the paper include: the protocol can be implemented in a distributed manner; the pseudo predictive approach requires less computation and communication; the verification of consensus convergence does not require the global information about the communication topology; the protocol allows delay to be time-varying, topology to dynamically and asymmetrically switch and system mode to be unstable. Numerical and practical examples 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.     

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.     

Passivity-based control for uncertain stochastic jumping systems with mode-dependent round-trip time delays

This paper considers the passivity-based control problem for stochastic jumping systems with mode-dependent round-trip time-varying delays and norm-bounded parametric uncertainties. By utilizing a novel Markovian switching Lyapunov functional, a delay-dependent passivity condition is obtained. Then, based on the derived passivity condition, a desired Markovian switching dynamic output feedback controller is designed, which ensures the resulting closed-loop system is passive. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.     

Time-varying output formation tracking of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems with multiple leaders and switching topologies

This paper studies the time-varying output formation tracking problems for heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems with multiple leaders in the presence of switching directed topologies, where the agents can have different system dynamics and state dimensions. The outputs of followers are required to accomplish a given time-varying formation configuration and track the convex combination of leaders’ outputs simultaneously. Firstly, using the neighboring relative information, a distributed observer is constructed for each follower to estimate the convex combination of multiple leaders’ states under the influences of switching directed topologies. The convergence of the observer is proved based on the piecewise Lyapunov theory and the threshold for the average dwell time of the switching topologies is derived. Then, an output formation tracking protocol based on the distributed observer and an algorithm to determine the control parameters of the protocol are presented. Considering the features of heterogeneous dynamics, the time-varying formation tracking feasible constraints are provided, and a compensation input is applied to expand the feasible formation set. Sufficient conditions for the heterogeneous multi-agent systems with multiple leaders and switching directed topologies to achieve the desired time-varying output formation tracking under the designed protocol are proposed. Finally, simulation examples are given to validate the theoretical results.     

Stability criteria of a class of nonlinear impulsive switching systems with time-varying delays

This paper investigates stability problems of a class of nonlinear impulsive switching systems with time-varying delays. Based on the common Lyapunov function method and Razumikhin technique, several stability criteria are established for nonlinear impulsive switching systems with time-varying delays. Our results show that switching systems can be stabilized by impulsive switching signals even if the system matrices are all unstable. In the absence of impulses, some of our results reduce to similar stability criteria for nonimpulsive switching systems in some recent research articles. Several examples with simulations are given to illustrate the efficiency of our results.     

Leader-following consensus considering effects of agents on each other via impulsive control: A topology dependent average dwell time approach

This paper intends to investigate the consensus problem of a nonlinear multi-agent system with new nonlinear terms added to the dynamics of each agent in the leader-following framework with impulsive control. The main contribution of this paper is introducing these new terms expressing the effect of each agent on neighbor agents. The new terms called effect terms (ETs) are considered with time-varying delay. Moreover, the communication interactions among all agents are addressed by a set of consensusable and unconsensusable switching topologies. In particular, the topology-dependent average dwell time (TDADT), one of the significant practical analysis methods for switched systems, has been calculated for each topology. The globally uniformly exponentially stability (GUES) for the consensus error dynamics is analyzed by employing algebraic graph theory and a multiple discontinuous Lyapunov function approach (MDLF) regarding separate Lyapunov functions for impulse instants. Furthermore, sufficient conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are derived to ensure that consensus can be achieved. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis is corroborated by a numerical example.     

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.     

Event-triggered tracking control for couple-group multi-agent systems

This paper mainly investigates the event-triggered tracking control for couple-group multi-agent systems in a disturbance environment, where the topology of the agents is switching. Consensus protocol is designed for the case that some agents reach a consistent value, while the other agents reach another consistent value. Then, event-triggered control laws are designed to reduce the frequency of individual actuation updating for discrete-time agent dynamics. Moreover, by applying the Lyapunov function method, a sufficient condition of couple-group consensus is established in terms of a matrix inequality when the communication topology is switching. Finally, simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

A delay-derivative-dependent approach to robust H∞ filter design for uncertain systems with time-varying distributed delays

This paper focuses on the problem of robust H∞ filter design for uncertain systems with time-varying state and distributed delays. System uncertainties are considered as norm-bounded time-varying parametric uncertainties. The delays are assumed to be time-varying delays being differentiable uniformly bounded with delay-derivative bounded by a constant, which may be greater than one. A new delay-derivative-dependent approach of filter design for the systems is proposed. A novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) is employed, and a tighter upper bound of its derivative is obtained by employing an inequality and using free-weighting matrices technique, then the proposed result has advantages over some existing results, in that it has less conservatism and it enlarges the application scope. An improved sufficient condition for the existence of such a filter is established in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI). Finally, illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness and reduced conservatism of the proposed method.     

Stabilization of discrete-time switched singular systems with state,output and switching delays

This paper is concerned with state feedback stabilization of discrete-time switched singular systems with time-varying delays existing simultaneously in the state, the output and the switching signal of the switched controller. On the basis of equivalent dynamics decomposition and Lyapunov–Krasovskii method, exponential estimates for the response of slow states of the closed-loop subsystems running in asynchronous and synchronous periods are first given. Exponential estimates for the response of fast states are also provided by establishing an analytic equation to solve the fast states and using some algebraic techniques. Then, by employing the obtained exponential estimates and the piecewise Lyapunov function approach with average dwell time (ADT) switching, sufficient conditions for the existence of a class of stabilizing switching signals and state feedback gains are derived, which explicitly depend on upper bounds on the delays and a lower bound on the ADT. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.     

Robust simultaneous fault detection and control for a class of nonlinear stochastic switched delay systems under asynchronous switching

This paper concerns the simultaneous fault detection and control (SFDC) problem for a class of nonlinear stochastic switched systems with time-varying state delay and parameter uncertainties. The switching signal of detector/controller unit (DCU) is assumed to be with switching delay, which results in the asynchronous switching between the subsystems and DCU. By constructing a switching strategy depending on the state and switching delays, new sufficient conditions expressed by a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) is derived to design DCU gains. This problem is formulated as an H_∞ optimization problem and both mean square exponential stability and fault detection of augmented system are considered. A numerical example is finally exploited to verify the effectiveness and potential of the achieved scheme.     

Robust stabilization of uncertain 2-D discrete-time delayed systems using sliding mode control

This paper aims to solve the problem of sliding mode control for an uncertain two-dimensional (2-D) systems with states having time-varying delays. The uncertainties in the system dynamics are constituted of mismatched uncertain parameters and the unknown nonlinear bounded function. The proposed problem utilizes the model transformation approach. By segregating the proper Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional in concert with the improved version of Wirtinger-based summation inequality, sufficient solvability conditions for the existence of linear switching surfaces have been put forward, which ensure the asymptotical stability of the reduced-order equivalent sliding mode dynamics. Then, we solve the controller synthesis problem by extending the recently proposed reaching law to 2-D systems, whose proportional part is appropriately scaled by the factor that does not depend on some constant terms but rather on current switching surface’s value, which in turn ensures the faster convergence and better robustness against uncertainties. Finally, the proposed results have been validated through an implementation to a suitable physical system.     

Average consensus in networks of dynamic agents with uncertain topologies and time-varying delays

In this paper, we study average consensus problem in networks of dynamic agents with uncertain topologies as well as time-varying communication delays. By using the linear matrix inequality method, we establish several sufficient conditions for average consensus in the existence of both uncertainties and delays. Several linear matrix inequality conditions are presented to determine the allowable upper bounds of time-varying communication delays and uncertainties. Numerical examples are worked out to illustrate the theoretical results.