Adaptive containment control of nonlinear multi-agent systems with non-identical agents

This paper addresses the containment control problem for a group of non-identical agents, where the dynamics of agents are supposed to be nonlinear with unknown parameters and parameterised by some functions. In controller design approach for each follower, adaptive control and Lyapunov theory are utilised as the main control strategies to guarantee the convergence of all non-identical followers to the dynamic convex hull formed by the leaders. The design of distributed adaptive controllers is based on the exchange of neighbourhood errors among the agents. For analysis of containment control problem, a new formulation has been developed using M-matrices. The validity of theoretical results are demonstrated through an example.     

Distributed adaptive containment control of networked flexible-joint robots using neural networks

This study presents a distributed adaptive containment control approach for a group of uncertain flexible-joint (FJ) robots with multiple dynamic leaders under a directed communication graph. The leaders are neighbors of only a subset of the followers. The derivatives of the leaders are unknown, namely, the position information of the leaders is only available for implementing the proposed control approach. The local adaptive dynamic surface containment controller for each follower is designed using only neighbors’ information to guarantee that all followers converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders. The function approximation technique using neural networks is employed to estimate the model uncertainties of each follower. It is proved that the containment control errors converge to an adjustable neighborhood of the origin regardless of model uncertainties and the lack of shared communication information. Simulation results for FJ manipulators are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive containment control scheme.     

Adaptive containment control of second-order multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics and multiple input-bounded leaders

This paper considers the adaptive containment control problem of second-order multi-agent systems with inherent nonlinear dynamics. In particular, the leaders’ control inputs are nonzero, bounded, and not available to any follower. Based on the relative states among neighbouring agents, a discontinuous adaptive protocol is first proposed to ensure that the containment errors of each follower converge to zero asymptotically, i.e. the states of the followers asymptotically converge to the convex hull spanned by those of the leaders. To eliminate the chattering effect caused by the discontinuous protocol, a continuous adaptive protocol is further designed based on the boundary layer technique and the σ-modification technique. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.     

Adaptive Containment Control for Fractional-Order Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems With Time-Varying Parameters

This paper investigates adaptive containment control for a class of fractional-order multi-agent systems (FOMASs) with time-varying parameters and disturbances. By using the bounded estimation method, the difficulty generated by the time-varying parameters and disturbances is overcome. The command filter is introduced to solve the complexity problem inherent in adaptive backstepping control. Meanwhile, in order to eliminate the effect of filter errors, a novel distributed error compensating scheme is constructed, in which only the local information from the neighbor agents is utilized. Then, a distributed adaptive containment control scheme for FOMASs is developed based on backstepping to guarantee that the outputs of all the followers are steered to the convex hull spanned by the leaders. Based on the extension of Barbalat’s lemma to fractional-order integrals, it can be proven that the containment errors and the compensating signals have asymptotic convergence. Finally, three simulation examples are given to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control method.      

无需相对速度信息的多Euler-Lagrange 系统自适应神经网络包含控制

对含有模型非线性不确定性和外部扰动的多Euler-Lagrange 系统的分布式协调包含控制问题进行研究. 考虑通讯拓扑为有向图, 所有领航者均为动态, 且各智能体间相对速度信息不可测情况. 首先, 选取相对速度作为辅助变量, 引入低通滤波器进行估计; 然后, 采用神经网络方法逼近并补偿非线性不确定性, 提出一种分布式自适应包含控制律, 并应用Lyapunov 稳定性理论证明闭环系统的包含误差一致最终有界; 最后, 通过仿真算例验证了所提出的控制律的有效性.

     

Distributed Adaptive Dynamic Surface Containment Control for Uncertain Multiple Euler-Lagrange Systems

This paper investigates the distributed containment control for a class of uncertain multiple Euler- Lagrange systems. A directed graph is used to characterize the interactions among the leaders and followers. The proposed approach is based on an adaptive dynamic surface control, where the system uncertainties are approximately modelled by interval type-2 fuzzy neural networks. The adaptive laws of neuro-fuzzy parameters are derived from the Lyapunov stability analysis. The robust stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed, and then all followers can converge into the convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders. In this study, a systematic control scheme is proposed and several indexes are used for performance comparisons. Simulation results are also provided to reveal the superiority of the proposed distributed adaptive containment controller.     

Fully distributed adaptive sliding-mode controller design for containment control of multiple Lagrangian systems

In this paper, we study the containment control problem for multiple Lagrangian systems with multiple dynamic leaders in the presence of parametric uncertainties and external disturbances with fully distributed controllers under an undirected graph. We first propose a fully distributed adaptive sliding-mode control algorithm combined with distributed sliding-mode estimators, without requiring the upper bounds of the derivatives of the leaders’ states and any other global information to be known by each follower. To reduce the effect on the varying gain during the adaption mainly caused by the initial error, fully distributed adaptive time-varying sliding-mode control is presented for controller design. To tackle the chattering effect caused by the discontinuous controller, we further propose a fully distributed continuous adaptive controller, under which both the containment errors and the adaptive gains are ultimately bounded. Simulation results are given to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Containment control of linear multi‐agent systems with multiple leaders of bounded inputs using distributed continuous controllers

This paper considers the containment control problem for multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics and multiple leaders whose control inputs are possibly nonzero and time varying. Based on the relative states of neighboring agents, a distributed static continuous controller is designed, under which the containment error is uniformly ultimately bounded and the upper bound of the containment error can be made arbitrarily small, if the subgraph associated with the followers is undirected and, for each follower, there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to that follower. It is noted that the design of the static controller requires the knowledge of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix and the upper bounds of the leaders’ control inputs. In order to remove these requirements, a distributed adaptive continuous controller is further proposed, which can be designed and implemented by each follower in a fully distributed fashion. Extensions to the case where only local output information is available and to the case of multi‐agent systems with matching uncertainties are also discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Output containment control for swarm systems with general linear dynamics: A dynamic output feedback approach

Output containment control problems for high-order linear time-invariant swarm systems under directed interaction topologies are investigated using a dynamic output feedback approach. Firstly, to propel the outputs of followers to converge to the convex hull formed by the outputs of leaders, a dynamic output containment protocol is presented. Then necessary and sufficient conditions for swarm systems to achieve output containment are proposed. To ensure the scalability of the criteria, a sufficient condition which only includes two linear matrix inequality constraints independent of the number of agents is further presented. Moreover, an approach independent of the number of agents is proposed to determine the gain matrices in the dynamic output containment protocols. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate theoretical results.     

Target containment control of multi-agent systems with random switching interconnection topologies

In this paper, the distributed containment control is considered for a second-order multi-agent system guided by multiple leaders with random switching topologies. The multi-leader control problem is investigated via a combination of convex analysis and stochastic process. The interaction topology between agents is described by a continuous-time irreducible Markov chain. A necessary and sufficient condition is obtained to make all the mobile agents almost surely asymptotically converge to the static convex leader set. Moreover, conditions on the tracking estimation are provided for the convex target set determined by moving multiple leaders.     

Containment Control of Fractional Order Multi-Agent Systems With Time Delays

In complex environments, many distributed multiagent systems are described with the fractional-order dynamics. In this paper, containment control of fractional-order multiagent systems with multiple leader agents are studied. Firstly, the collaborative control of fractional-order multi-agent systems (FOMAS) with multiple leaders is analyzed in a directed network without delays. Then, by using Laplace transform and frequency domain theorem, containment consensus of networked FOMAS with time delays is investigated in an undirected network, and a critical value of delays is obtained to ensure the containment consensus of FOMAS. Finally, numerical simulations are shown to verify the results.      

Containment control of switched multi-agent systems

In this paper, we consider the containment control problem for the switched multi-agent system which is composed of continuous-time and discrete-time subsystems. Continuous-time protocol based on the relative state measurements of agents are designed for the switched multi-agent system with multiple stationary and dynamic leaders, respectively. By using graph theory and matrix theory, some necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for solving the containment control problem under arbitrary switching. When the leaders are dynamic, impulsive protocol are also proposed for the switched multi-agent system. The simulation results are given to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Distributed containment control for Lagrangian networks with parametric uncertainties under a directed graph

In this paper, we study the distributed containment control problem for networked Lagrangian systems with multiple dynamic leaders in the presence of parametric uncertainties under a directed graph that characterizes the interaction among the leaders and the followers. We propose a distributed adaptive control algorithm combined with distributed sliding-mode estimators. A necessary and sufficient condition on the directed graph is presented such that all followers converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders asymptotically. As a byproduct, we show a necessary and sufficient condition on leaderless consensus for networked Lagrangian systems under a directed graph. Numerical simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithms.     

带强连通分支的多智能体系统可控包含控制

研究有强连通子图拓扑结构的有向多智能体系统领导者选择及可控包含控制问题.根据网络拓扑结构,智能体被分为两类:单元智能体和一般智能体.首先设计强连通子图中个体组成的单元智能体的一致性协议实现各个单元的一致;后由单元智能体和一般智能体构成新的拓扑结构,结合复杂网络可控性理论与二分图最大匹配算法确定满足网络可控的最少领导者集合,并为所有智能个体设计相应的控制协议,驱使跟随者渐近收敛到多个领导者组成的动态凸包中,从而实现网络的可控包含控制.仿真结果验证了理论分析的正确性.     

Event-based broadcasting containment control for multi-agent systems under directed topology

The event-based broadcasting containment control problem for both first-order and second-order multi-agent systems under directed topology is investigated. Based on certain event, each agent decides when to transmit its current states to its neighbours and the agents’ distributed control algorithms are based on these sampled state measurements, which can significantly decrease the number of the controllers’ updates. All the agents are divided into two groups, namely, the leaders and the followers. The formation control is introduced. The leaders exchange their information to converge to a formation. The followers utilise the information from both their leader neighbours and their follower neighbours and are driven to the convex hull of the leaders using the proposed control algorithms. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.     

Containment control of a class of heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper studies the containment control of a class of heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems under general directed graph. Every follower agent is a nonlinear system in the output feedback form with the same relative degree. The authors’ goal is to design a distributed dynamic controller such that the outputs of followers enter the convex hull spanned by the outputs of leaders. To this end, the containment problem is converted into a cooperative output regulation problem, a distributed adaptive recursive procedure and the internal model are employed to design the distributed controller.     

Distributed containment control of multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics in the presence of multiple leaders

This paper considers the containment control problems for both continuous‐time and discrete‐time multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics under directed communication topologies. Distributed dynamic containment controllers based on the relative outputs of neighboring agents are constructed for both continuous‐time and discrete‐time cases, under which the states of the followers will asymptotically converge to the convex hull formed by those of the leaders if, for each follower, there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to that follower. Sufficient conditions on the existence of these dynamic controllers are given. Static containment controllers relying on the relative states of neighboring agents are also discussed as special cases. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed adaptive containment control for high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper considers the adaptive containment control of high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with nonlinear parameterisation. Without imposing any conditions on the unknown nonlinearities and unknown parameters, the distributed controllers are constructed recursively with only neighbours’ information by using the backstepping design method. Under the assumption that the leaders set is globally reachable, it is shown that all the signals of the closed-loop systems are global uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB), and all the followers will exponentially converge to the convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders with adjustable tracking errors. Finally, two simulation examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the control scheme.     

基于二分图最大匹配的多机器鱼可控包含控制

考虑水下机器鱼的运动学约束及包含控制中的领导者选择问题,将可控性理论与包含控制相结合,针对有向多机器鱼系统,提出一种基于二分图最大匹配的多机器鱼可控包含控制算法.首先,针对有向多机器鱼网络拓扑结构,利用二分图最大匹配算法求得满足系统可控的驱动节点,即为领导者,其余节点为跟随者;其次,针对2D仿真机器鱼模型设计相应的包含控制协议,从而实现多机器鱼的可控包含控制,且最终跟随者鱼体前端刚体长边方向与领导者保持一致,并应用Lyapunov稳定性理论证明系统的稳定性;最后,基于URWPGSim2D多机器鱼仿真平台进行两组仿真实验,一组随机选取领导者,另一组采用二分图最大匹配算法确定领导者,对比仿真结果表明,所提算法能够有效地实现多机器鱼的可控包含控制.     

Containment control for second-order multi-agent systems with time-varying delays

This paper considers the containment control problem for second-order multi-agent systems with time-varying delays. Both the containment control problem with multiple stationary leaders and the problem with multiple dynamic leaders are investigated. Sufficient conditions on the communication digraph, the feedback gains, and the allowed upper bound of the delays to ensure containment control are given. In the case that the leaders are stationary, the Lyapunov–Razumikhin function method is used. In the case that the leaders are dynamic, the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method and the linear matrix inequality (LMI) method are jointly used. A novel discretized Lyapunov functional method is introduced to utilize the upper bound of the derivative of the delays no matter how large it is, which leads to a better result on the allowed upper bound of the delays to ensure containment control. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.