A connectivity-preserving flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems based only on position measurements

Most existing flocking algorithms rely on information about both relative position and relative velocity among neighbouring agents. In this article, we investigate the flocking problem with only position measurements. We propose a provably-stable flocking algorithm, in which an output vector is produced by distributed filters based on position information alone but not velocity information. Under the assumption that the initial interactive network is connected, the flocking algorithm not only can steer a group of agents to a stable flocking motion, but also can preserve the connectivity of the interactive network during the dynamical evolution. Moreover, we investigate the flocking algorithm with a virtual leader and show that all agents can asymptotically attain a desired velocity even if only one agent in the team has access to the information of the virtual leader. We finally show some numerical simulations to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Algebraic criteria for consensus problems of continuous-time networked systems

This article addresses algebraic criteria for consensus problems of continuous-time networked systems with fixed and switching topology. A special eigenvector ω of the Laplacian matrix is first constructed and correlated with the connectivity of digraph. And then, some necessary and/or sufficient algebraic conditions are presented by employing the vector ω, which can directly determine whether the consensus problem can be solved. More importantly, for the switching topology case, the obtained algebraic conditions for the average consensus problem are necessary and sufficient. Furthermore, the presented results clearly show that only the agents corresponding to the positive elements of ω contribute to the group decision value and decide the collective behaviour of the system. Particularly for the fixed topology case, the role of each agent is exactly measured by the value of the corresponding element of ω. Based on these results, some extended protocols are further proposed to solve the average consensus problem, in which the interaction digraphs are not needed to be balanced. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the obtained results.     

Distributed connected coverage control for groups of mobile agents

For a group of mobile agents, each agent can sense the local environment around it and directly communicate with others in its communication range. This article deals with the self-deployment problem of mobile agents to achieve a sensing coverage over the environment as large as possible, while keeping the underlying time-variant communication topology connected all the time. For this problem, a self-deployment algorithm is developed for each agent. It guarantees network connectivity by preserving the group core structure, which is extracted from the communication topology in a completely distributed, local manner and is renewed in each iteration period. Note that maintaining all the connecting edges in the core structure still remains a sufficient degree of freedom for each agent to traverse over a maximal distance from its neighbours. Thus, the distributed connected coverage objective can be achieved by spreading out the group members with the constraints of preserving the core structure. The performance of the self-deployment algorithm is demonstrated by both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.     

An analogue technique for solving trajectory optimization problems

Analogue or hybrid computer methods for solving trajectory optimization problems usually require the solution of a two-point boundary value problem. A method of solving this problem is presented which does not require a good initial approximation to ensure convergence of the iteration. Analogue computer results are given with the method applied to a double integrator plant. Two different forms of performance index are considered.     

Leader-following consensus of high-order multi-agent linear systems with bounded transmission channels

The leader-following consensus of high-order multi-agent linear systems with bounded transmission channels is considered. Agents modelled as LTI dynamics exchange information according to a network which can be described as a graph with agents as its vertices and information transmission channels as its edges. The transmission channels are bounded. The objective is leader-following in the sense that the state of all agents should converge to that of the leader vehicle. Detailed analysis of the leader-following consensus under bounded transmission channels is investigated for both fixed and switching network topologies.     

Distributed adaptive containment control for networked uncertain Euler–Lagrange systems

The paper is concerned with the containment problem of a multi-agent system with each agent being described by an Euler–Lagrange (EL) equation with uncertain parameters. Distributed adaptive control laws are proposed such that the generalised positions of the EL systems converge to the target convex set without measuring or observing neighbours' velocities. Moreover, exponential rate convergence is obtained when the regressor matrix of each EL system is of full column rank. As a byproduct, some of the uncertain parameters existing in the EL systems can be identified under the full column rank condition. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through the simulations on a group of networked uncertain robots.     

On average consensus in directed networks of agents with switching topology and time delay

In this article, the average consensus problem in directed networks of agents with both switching topology and coupling delay is investigated. First, based on a specific orthogonal transformation of the Laplacian matrix, an important proposition for verifying the positive definiteness of a class of quadratic forms is provided, which is of independent interest in matrix theory. And the relation between weakly connected and strongly connected digraphs is also investigated. Then, it is proved that all the agents reach the average consensus asymptotically for appropriate time delay if the communication topology keeps weakly connected and balanced. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of the new result.     

Accelerating average consensus by using the information of second-order neighbours with communication delays

This article investigates the problem of accelerating average consensus in undirected and connected networks. The protocol using the information of second-order neighbours with communication delays is proposed and the delay effects on stability and the convergence speed are analysed, respectively, under an assumption about the network topologies. It is proved that, for appropriate communication delays, networks reach average consensus faster under the proposed protocol than the standard protocol using only the information of first-order neighbours. Finally, a simulation example is presented to illustrate the proposed results.     

Asynchronous sampled-data consensus of singular multi-agent systems based on event-triggered strategy

This paper is concerned with sampled-data consensus for multi-agent systems with singular dynamics. It is assumed that the sampling period of each agent is independent of the other's. Based on event-triggered sampled-data transmission strategy, a distributed consensus protocol is presented. The consensus of singular multi-agent system is transformed into the stability of singular systems with multiple time-varying delays. By employing the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional method, a sufficient condition on the consensus of multi-agent singular system is derived. Based on the obtained condition, an algorithm to design consensus controller gains is presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Two numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.