Semi‐global bipartite output consensus of heterogeneous multi‐agent systems subject to input saturation by finite‐time observer

In this paper, the semi‐global bipartite output consensus problem of heterogeneous linear multi‐agent systems is studied. Compared with related works, both cooperative interactions and antagonistic interactions between agents are considered, and the input saturation on each follower is taken into account. First, two distributed finite‐time observers are designed to recover the leader's state. Particularly, the setting time can be independent of any initial states. Due to the antagonistic interactions, estimation values are the same as the leader's state in modulus but may not in sign. Then, the low‐gain feedback technique is used to develop the distributed control law for each follower. Moreover, we summarize a framework for solving the semi‐global bipartite output consensus problem of heterogeneous multi‐agent systems subject to input saturation. Finally, examples are given to illustrate the results.     

Robust semiglobal swarm tracking of coupled harmonic oscillators with input saturation and external disturbance

The robust semiglobal swarm tracking problem of N coupled harmonic oscillators and 1 actual leader with input saturation and external disturbance on a directed communication topology is considered, in which the N coupled harmonic oscillators are referred to followers. First, the low‐and‐high gain feedback technique is introduced to construct a relative state‐dependent control algorithm. Then, an observer‐based control algorithm is designed based on the low‐and‐high gain feedback technique and the high‐gain observer design methodology. Sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee robust semiglobal swarm tracking for state‐feedback control and output‐feedback control, respectively. Numerical simulations are finally provided to verify the theoretic results.     

Semi‐global containment control for linear systems in the presence of actuator position and rate saturation

This paper studies the semi‐global containment control problem for a group of general linear systems in the presence of actuator position and rate saturation. Both a state feedback containment control algorithm and an output feedback containment algorithm are constructed for each follower agent in the system by using low gain approach. We show that the states of all follower agents will converge to the convex hull formed by the leader agents asymptotically under these control algorithms when the communication topology among follower agents is a connected undirected graph and each leader agent is a neighbor of at least one follower agent. Simulation results illustrate the theoretical results.     

Semi‐global stabilization of nonlinear systems by nonsmooth output feedback

Semi‐global stabilization by output feedback is studied for a class of nonuniformly observable and nonsmoothly stabilizable nonlinear systems. The contribution of this paper is to point out that most of the restrictive growth conditions required in the previous work can be relaxed or removed if a less demanding control objective, namely, semi‐global instead of global stabilization is sought. In particular, it is proved that without imposing restrictive conditions, semi‐global stabilization by nonsmooth output feedback can be achieved for a chain of odd power integrators perturbed by a smooth triangular vector field, although it is neither smoothly stabilizable nor uniformly observable. Extensions to nonstrictly triangular systems are also discussed in the two‐dimensional case. Several examples are provided to illustrate the key features of the proposed semi‐global output feedback controllers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Containment control of multi‐agent systems by exploiting the control inputs of neighbors

This paper studies the containment control problem for multi‐agent systems consisting of multiple leaders and followers connected as a network. The objective is to design control protocols so that the leaders will converge to a certain desired formation while the followers converge to the convex hull of the leaders. A novel protocol is proposed by exploiting the control input information of neighbors. Both continuous‐time and discrete‐time systems are considered. For continuous‐time systems, it is proved that the protocol is robust to any constant delays of the neighbors' control inputs. For discrete‐time systems, a sufficient condition on the feedback gain for the containment control is given in terms of the time delay and graph information. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐global leader‐following consensus of discrete‐time linear multi‐agent systems subject to actuator position and rate saturation

This paper deals with the leader‐following consensus of discrete‐time multi‐agent systems subject to both position and rate saturation. Each agent is described by a discrete‐time general linear dynamic with actuator subject to position and rate saturation. A modified algebraic Riccati equation and low‐gain feedback design technique are used to construct both state feedback and output feedback control protocols. It is established that a semi‐global leader‐following consensus can be achieved when the system is asymptotically null controllable with bounded controls and a leader agent has a directed path to every follower agent. Finally, several simulations are carried out to illustrate the results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fractional‐order–dependent global stability analysis and observer‐based synthesis for a class of nonlinear fractional‐order systems

This paper focuses on proposing novel conditions for stability analysis and stabilization of the class of nonlinear fractional‐order systems. First, by considering the class of nonlinear fractional‐order systems as a feedback interconnection system and applying small‐gain theorem, a condition is proposed for L₂‐norm boundedness of the solutions of these systems. Then, by using the Mittag‐Leffler function properties, we show that satisfaction of the proposed condition proves the global asymptotic stability of the class of nonlinear fractional‐order systems with fractional order lying in (0.5, 1) or (1.5, 2). Unlike the Lyapunov‐based methods for stability analysis of fractional‐order systems, the new condition depends on the fractional order of the system. Moreover, it is related to the H_∞‐norm of the linear part of the system and it can be transformed to linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) using fractional‐order bounded‐real lemma. Furthermore, the proposed stability analysis method is extended to the state‐feedback and observer‐based controller design for the class of nonlinear fractional‐order systems based on solving some LMIs. In the observer‐based stabilization problem, we prove that the separation principle holds using our method and one can find the observer gain and pseudostate‐feedback gain in two separate steps. Finally, three numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the advantage of the novel proposed conditions with the previous results.     

Robust semi‐global coordinated tracking of linear multi‐agent systems with input saturation

This paper investigates the problem of coordinated tracking of a linear multi‐agent system subject to actuator magnitude saturation and dead zone characteristic with input additive uncertainties and disturbances. Distributed consensus and swarm tracking protocols are developed from a low‐and‐high gain feedback approach. Under the assumption that each agent is asymptotically null controllable with bounded controls, it is shown that robust semi‐global consensus tracking and swarm tracking of the multi‐agent system can always be reached provided that the networks are connected. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐global stabilization via linear sampled‐data output feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems

This paper develops a systematic design scheme to construct a linear sampled‐data output feedback controller that semi‐globally asymptotically stabilizes a class of uncertain systems with both higher‐order and linear growth nonlinearities. To deal with the uncertain coefficients in the systems, a robust state feedback stabilizer and a reduced‐order sampled‐data observer, both in the linear form, are constructed and then integrated together. The semi‐global attractivity and local stability are delicately proved by carefully selecting a scaling gain using the output feedback domination approach and a sampling period sufficiently small to restrain the state growth under a zero‐order‐holder input. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Containment control for coupled harmonic oscillators with multiple leaders under directed topology

This paper investigates the problem of containment control for coupled harmonic oscillators with multiple leaders under directed topology. Using tools from matrix, graph and stability theories, necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for coupled harmonic oscillators under continuous-time and sampled-data-based protocols, respectively. When the continuous-time protocol is used, it is proved that every follower will ultimately converge to the convex hull spanned by the leaders if and only if there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to that follower at any time. When the sampled-data-based protocol is used, it is shown that the containment can be achieved if and only if: (1) an appropriate sampling period is chosen and (2) for every follower, there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to that follower at any time. And we also give the containment conditions for coupled harmonic oscillators under undirected topology as a special case. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the theoretical findings.     

Semi‐global leader‐following consensus of multiple linear systems with position and rate limited actuators

This paper studies the semi‐global leader‐following consensus problem for a group of linear systems in the presence of both actuator position and rate saturation. Each follower agent in the group is described by a general linear system subject to simultaneous actuator position and rate saturation. For each follower agent, we construct both a linear state feedback control law and a linear output feedback control law by using low gain approach. We show that semi‐global leader‐following consensus can be achieved by using these control laws when the communication topology among follower agents is a connected undirected graph, and the leader is a neighbor of at least one follower. Simulation results illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐global output feedback control for nonlinear systems with uncertain time‐delay and output function

This paper considers semi‐global output feedback control for more general nonlinear systems with unknown time‐delay and output function whose derivative is unbounded from above. By introducing a new observer and using the backstepping design method and the Razumikhin stability theorem, an output feedback controller is constructed to achieve a semi‐global stability. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐global output consensus of a group of linear systems in the presence of external disturbances and actuator saturation: An output regulation approach

This paper studies the problem of semi‐global leader‐following output consensus of a multi‐agent system. The output of each follower agent in the system, described by a same general linear system subject to external disturbances and actuator saturation, is to track the output of the leader, described by a linear system, which also generates disturbances as the exosystem does in the classical output regulation problem. Conditions on the agent dynamics are identified, under which a low‐gain feedback‐based linear state‐control algorithm is constructed for each follower agent such that the output consensus is achieved when the communication topology among the agents is a digraph containing no loop, and the leader is reachable from any follower agent. We also extend the results to the non‐identical disturbance case. In this case, conditions based on both the agent dynamics and the communication topology are identified, under which a low‐gain feedback‐based linear state‐control algorithm is constructed for each follower agent such that the leader‐following output consensus is achieved when the communication topology among the follower agents is a strongly connected and detailed balanced digraph, and the leader is a neighbor of at least one follower. In addition, under some further conditions on the agent dynamics, the control algorithm is adapted so as to achieve semi‐global leader‐following output consensus for a jointly connected undirected graph and the leader reachable from at least one follower. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consensus analysis for leader‐following multi‐agent systems with second‐order individual dynamics and arbitrary sampling

This paper performs a consensus analysis of leader‐following multi‐agent systems with multiple double integrators in the framework of sampled‐data control. Both single‐leader and multiple‐leader scenarios are considered under the assumption of networks with detectable position‐like state information. The coordination tasks are accomplished by a given protocol with the robustness against the change of sampling periods. The sampling periods can be chosen to be of an arbitrary fixed length or large time‐varying length. Under the proposed protocol, we achieve two objectives: (i) in the single leader‐subgroup case, all followers reach an agreement with leaders on states asymptotically and (ii) in the multiple leader‐subgroup case, each follower converges to some convex combination of the final states of all leaders. It is shown that the final state configuration of the convex combination is uniquely determined by the underlying interaction topology, which can be any weakly connected graph. Compared with the existing results on leader‐following networks, the consensus problem and the containment problem are solved in a unified framework with large sampling periods. Some numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the dynamic behavior of all agents with this protocol. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐global finite‐time observers for multi‐output nonlinear systems

Finite‐time stability is investigated for nonlinear systems, which satisfy uniqueness of solution. First, a new sufficient condition for local finite‐time stability is presented. Next, by using the high‐gain observers and carefully selecting the homogeneity powers and weights, the problem of semi‐global and finite‐time stable observers is studied for multi‐output nonlinear systems with uniform observability and a triangular structure. Then, a design procedure is worked out for such observers. Finally, two numerical examples further verify the validity of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A low‐complexity design for distributed containment control of networked pure‐feedback systems and its application to fault‐tolerant control

This paper addresses a low‐complexity distributed containment control problem and its extension to fault‐tolerant control for networked nonlinear pure‐feedback systems under a directed graph. The multiple dynamic leaders are neighbors of only a subset of the followers described by completely non‐affine multi‐input multi‐output pure‐feedback dynamics. It is assumed that all followers' nonlinearities are heterogeneous and unknown. The proposed containment controller is implemented by using only error surfaces integrated by performance bounding functions and does not require any differential equations for compensating uncertainties and faults. Thus, compared with the previous containment control approaches for multi‐agent systems with unknown non‐affine nonlinearities, the distributed containment control structure is simplified. In addition, it is shown that the proposed control scheme can be applied to the fault‐tolerant containment control problem in the presence of unexpected system and actuator faults, without reconstructing any control structure. It is shown from Lyapunov stability theorem that all followers nearly converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders and the containment control errors are preserved within certain given predefined bounds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed Containment Control for Nonlinear Multi‐Agent Systems with Time‐Delayed Protocol

In this paper, the containment control problem is considered for nonlinear multi‐agent systems with directed communication topology. Under the guidance of designed distributed communication protocols with/without previous state information, the followers are expected to converge to a dynamic convex hull spanned by multiple leaders. Two multi‐step algorithms are proposed to construct the corresponding protocols, the state feedback protocol and the delay‐coupled protocol, under which the containment control can be achieved asymptotically. Furthermore, it is found that the delay‐coupled protocol is rather sensitive to time delays. That is, real‐time tracking will become impossible by only using long‐dated previous state information. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed schemes.     

An iterative Q‐learning scheme for the global stabilization of discrete‐time linear systems subject to actuator saturation

In this paper, we propose a model‐free algorithm for global stabilization of linear systems subject to actuator saturation. The idea of gain‐scheduled low gain feedback is applied to develop control laws that avoid saturation and achieve global stabilization. To design these control laws, we employ the framework of parameterized algebraic Riccati equations (AREs). Reinforcement learning techniques are developed to find the solution of the parameterized ARE without requiring any knowledge of the system dynamics. In particular, we present an iterative Q‐learning scheme that searches for a low gain parameter and iteratively solves the parameterized ARE using the Bellman equation. Both state feedback and output feedback algorithms are developed. It is shown that the proposed scheme achieves model‐free global stabilization under bounded controls and convergence to the optimal solution of the ARE is achieved. Simulation results are presented that confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Stabilization of Stochastic Coupled Systems With Time Delay Via Feedback Control Based on Discrete‐Time State Observations

In this paper, the stabilization of stochastic coupled systems (SCSs) with time delay via feedback control based on discrete‐time state observations is investigated. We use the discrete‐time state feedback control to stabilize stochastic coupled systems with time delay. Moreover, by employing Lyapunov method and graph theory, the upper bound of the duration between two consecutive state observations is obtained and some criteria are established to guarantee the stabilization in sense of ‐stability and mean‐square asymptotic stability of SCSs with time delay via feedback control based on discrete‐time state observations. In addition, to verify the theoretical results, stochastic coupled oscillators with time delay are performed. At last, a numerical example is given to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of our analytical results.     

Output containment analysis and design for high‐order linear time‐invariant swarm systems

Output containment analysis and design problems for high‐order linear time‐invariant swarm systems are dealt with. Firstly, output containment protocols are presented for leaders and followers, respectively, to partially assign the output motion modes of leaders and propel the outputs of followers to converge to the convex hull formed by the outputs of leaders. Then, output containment problems for swarm systems are transformed into stability problems, and sufficient conditions for swarm systems to achieve output containment are proposed. Moreover, an approach to determine the gain matrix in the protocol for swarm systems to achieve output containment is given, which has less calculation complexity. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate theoretical results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.