Distributed output regulation of leader–follower multi‐agent systems

In this paper, distributed leader–follower control algorithms are presented for linear multi‐agent systems based on output regulation theory and internal model principle. By treating a leader to be followed as an exosystem, the proposed framework can be used to generalize existing multi‐agent coordination solutions to allow the identical agents to track an active leader with different dynamics and unmeasurable variables. Moreover, the obtained results for multi‐agent coordination control are an extension of previous work on centralized and decentralized output regulation to a distributed control context. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the distributed output regulation problem are given. Finally, distributed output regulation of some classes of multi‐agent systems with switching interconnection topologies are discussed via both static and dynamic feedback. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consensus for formation control of multi‐agent systems

This study considers the formation problem for multi‐agent systems, which are described by the second‐order dynamics on nonlinear manifolds SE(2) and SE(3). In particular, the model of each agent contains information about its attitude. Using a consensus strategy, a control law is developed to guarantee that any desired formation can be achieved asymptotically under the conditions of complete or tree‐shaped communication topologies. Numerical simulations are presented to verify the theoretical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relative attitude formation control of multi‐agent systems

This paper investigates the relative attitude formation control problem for a group of rigid‐body agents using relative attitude information on SO(3). On the basis of the gradient of a potential function, a family of distributed angular velocity control laws, which differ in the sense of a geodesic distance dependent function, is proposed. With directed and switching interaction topologies, the desired relative attitude formation is showed to be achieved asymptotically provided that the topology is jointly quasi‐strongly connected. Moreover, several sufficient conditions for the desired formation to be achieved exponentially and almost globally are given. Additionally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed control laws. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed event‐triggered feedback consensus control with state‐dependent threshold for general linear multi‐agent systems

This paper considers the distributed event‐triggered consensus problem for multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics under undirected graphs. Based on state feedback, we propose a novel distributed event‐triggered consensus controller with state‐dependent threshold for each agent to achieve consensus, without continuous communication in either controller update or triggering condition monitoring. Each agent only needs to monitor its own state continuously to determine if the event is triggered. It is proved that there is no Zeno behavior under the proposed consensus control algorithm. To relax the requirement of the state measurement of each agent, we further propose a novel distributed observer‐based event‐triggered consensus controller to solve the consensus problem in the case with output feedback and prove that there is no Zeno behavior exhibited. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An architecture for tuple‐based coordination of multi‐agent systems

Multi‐agent system development calls for powerful and expressive coordination models and languages, as well as for an effective coordination technology. A good deal of the current research effort focuses on tuple‐based coordination, exploiting its well‐known advantages, such as agent uncoupling and associative access to information, and addressing its limitations in terms of flexibility and control capabilities. In particular, the behaviour of a Linda‐like tuple space is fixed once and for all by the coordination model, and cannot be tailored to the specific application needs. Tuple centres are tuple spaces whose behaviour can be programmed by defining transactional reactions to the basic communication events, allowing coordination laws to be explicitly defined and embedded into the coordination medium. This paper presents the architecture of a run‐time system for tuple‐based coordination, where tuple centres work as an extensible kernel, around which multi‐agent systems can be designed and deployed. After sketching the implementation, the paper shows the advantages that can be achieved from both the design and the performance viewpoints. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observer‐based leader‐following consensus of uncertain nonlinear multi‐agent systems

In this paper, the leader‐following consensus problem of uncertain high‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems on directed graph with a fixed topology is studied, where it is assumed that the relative states of a follower and its neighbors are immeasurable and only the relative outputs are available. Nonlinear adaptive observers are firstly proposed for each follower to estimate the states of it and its neighbors, and an observer‐based distributed adaptive control scheme is constructed to guarantee that all followers asymptotically synchronize to a leader with tracking errors being semi‐globally uniform ultimate bounded. On the basis of algebraic graph theory and Lyapunov theory, the closed‐loop system stability analysis is conducted. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed new design techniques. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed adaptive fault‐tolerant leader‐following formation control of nonlinear uncertain second‐order multi‐agent systems

This paper presents a distributed integrated fault diagnosis and accommodation scheme for leader‐following formation control of a class of nonlinear uncertain second‐order multi‐agent systems. The fault model under consideration includes both process and actuator faults, which may evolve abruptly or incipiently. The time‐varying leader communicates with a small subset of follower agents, and each follower agent communicates to its directly connected neighbors through a bidirectional network with possibly asymmetric weights. A local fault diagnosis and accommodation component are designed for each agent in the distributed system, which consists of a fault detection and isolation module and a reconfigurable controller module comprised of a baseline controller and two adaptive fault‐tolerant controllers, activated after fault detection and after fault isolation, respectively. By using appropriately the designed Lyapunov functions, the closed‐loop stability and asymptotic convergence properties of the leader‐follower formation are rigorously established under different modes of the fault‐tolerant control system.     

Output‐feedback adaptive consensus tracking control for a class of high‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems

In this paper, an output‐feedback adaptive consensus tracking control scheme is proposed for a class of high‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems. The agents are allowed to have unknown parameters, unknown nonlinearities, and input quantization simultaneously. The desired trajectory to be tracked is available for only a subset of agents, and only the relative outputs and the quantized inputs need to be measured or transmitted as signal exchange among neighbors regardless of the system order. By introducing a kind of high‐gain K‐filters and a smooth function, the effect among agents caused by the unknown nonlinearities is successfully counteracted, and all closed‐loop signals are proved to be globally uniformly bounded. Moreover, it is shown that the tracking errors converge to a residual set that can be made arbitrarily small. Simulation results on robot manipulators are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formation control for multi‐agent systems through an iterative learning design approach

This paper deals with formation control problems for multi‐agent systems by using iterative learning control (ILC) design approaches. Distributed formation ILC algorithms are presented to enable all agents in directed graphs to achieve the desired relative formations perfectly over a finite‐time interval. It is shown that not only asymptotic stability but also monotonic convergence of multi‐agent formation ILC can be accomplished, and the convergence conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities can be simultaneously established. The derived results are also applicable to multi‐agent systems that are subject to stochastic disturbances and model uncertainties. Furthermore, the feasibility of convergence conditions and the effect of communication delays are discussed for the proposed multi‐agent formation ILC algorithms. Simulation results are given for uncertain multi‐agent systems to verify the theoretical study. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Event‐triggered output synchronization of heterogeneous multi‐agent systems

This paper proposes a control architecture that employs event‐triggered control techniques to achieve output synchronization of a group of heterogeneous linear time‐invariant agents. We associate with each agent an event‐triggered output regulation controller and an event‐triggered reference generator. The event‐triggered output regulation controller is designed such that the regulated output of the agent approximately tracks a reference signal provided by the reference generator in the presence of unknown disturbances. The event‐triggered reference generator is responsible for synchronizing its internal state across all agents by exchanging information through a communication network linking the agents. We first address the output regulation problem for a single agent where we analyze two event‐triggered scenarios. In the first one, the output and input event detectors operate synchronously, meaning that resets are made at the same time instants, while in the second one, they operate asynchronously and independently of each other. It is shown that the tracking error is globally bounded for all bounded reference trajectories and all bounded disturbances. We then merge the results on event‐triggered output regulation with previous results on event‐triggered communication protocols for synchronization of the reference generators to demonstrate that the regulated output of each agent converges to and remains in a neighborhood of the desired reference trajectory and that the closed‐loop system does not exhibit Zeno solutions. Several examples are provided to illustrate the advantages and issues of every component of the proposed control architecture. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive iterative learning control for coordination of second‐order multi‐agent systems

In this paper, an efficient framework is proposed to the consensus and formation control of distributed multi‐agent systems with second‐order dynamics and unknown time‐varying parameters, by means of an adaptive iterative learning control approach. Under the assumption that the acceleration of the leader is unknown to any follower agents, a new adaptive auxiliary control and the distributed adaptive iterative learning protocols are designed. Then, all follower agents track the leader uniformly on [0,T] for consensus problem and keep the desired distance from the leader and achieve velocity consensus uniformly on [0,T] for the formation problem, respectively. The distributed multi‐agent coordinations performance is analyzed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocols in this paper.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Necessary and sufficient conditions for bounded distributed mean square tracking of multi‐agent systems with noises

This paper is concerned with the distributed control problem of second‐order agents under directed network topology. The control input of each agent only depends on its own state and the states of its neighbors corrupted by white noises. By using the algebraic graph theory and stochastic analysis method, necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for mean square bounded tracking. Finally, several simulation examples are given to illustrate the results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust consensus tracking for a class of heterogeneous second‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems

This paper deals with the robust consensus tracking problem for a class of heterogeneous second‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems with bounded external disturbances. First, a distributed adaptive control law is proposed based on the relative position and velocity information. It is shown that for any connected undirected communication graph, the proposed control law solves the robust consensus tracking problem. Then, by introducing a novel distributed observer and employing backstepping design techniques, a distributed adaptive control law is constructed based only on the relative position information. Compared with the existing results, the proposed adaptive consensus protocols are in a distributed fashion, and the nonlinear functions are not required to satisfy any globally Lipschitz or Lipschitz‐like condition. Numerical examples are given to verify our proposed protocols. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coordination control of multiple Euler–Lagrange systems for escorting mission

In this paper, a motion control problem of multi‐agent systems for escorting a target is investigated by employing nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control and adaptive control associated with kinematic control. The proposed control law is robust to model uncertainty and disturbances, and it guarantees all the agents to scatter around the target evenly and escort it with a fixed distance while avoiding obstacles (or collisions) in p‐dimensional case ( is a positive integer). Finite‐time convergence of the position errors and velocity errors is proved rigorously by a Lyapunov‐based approach and finite‐time control techniques. Simulation results in both two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional space are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and high‐precision performance of the control algorithm compared with the traditional adaptive sliding mode control, showing that all the agents can move into suitable positions on the surface of the sphere in the escort mission, and the formation can be reconfigured automatically when the obstacle (or collision) avoidance task is active. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient environment management for distributed simulation of large‐scale situated multi‐agent systems

Multi‐agent systems have been proven very effective for the modelling and simulation (M&S) of complex systems like those related to biology, engineering, social sciences and so forth. The intrinsic spatial character of many such systems leads to the definition of a situated agent. A situated agent owns spatial coordinates and acts and interacts with its peers in a hosting territory. In the context of parallel/distributed simulation of situated agent models, the territory represents a huge shared variable that requires careful handling. Frequent access by agents to territory information easily becomes a bottleneck degrading system performance and scalability. This paper proposes an original approach to modelling and distributed simulation of large‐scale situated multi‐agent systems. Time management is exploited for resolving conflicts and achieving data consistency while accessing the environment. The approach allows a simplification of the M&S tasks by making the modeller unaware of distribution concerns while ensuring the achievement of good scalability and performance during the distributed simulation. Practical aspects of the approach are demonstrated through some modelling examples based on Tileworld. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed node‐to‐node consensus of multi‐agent systems with stochastic sampling

This paper is concerned with the mean square node‐to‐node consensus tracking problem for multi‐agent systems with nonidentical nonlinear dynamics and directed topologies. The randomly occurred uncertainties in the sampling devices may result in stochastically varied sampling periods, which lead to the investigation of node‐to‐node consensus problem under stochastic sampling. By employing the input‐delay method and discontinuous Lyapunov functional approach, it arrives at some sufficient conditions under which the state of each follower can track that of the corresponding leader asymptotically in the mean square sense. Finally, some numerical simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coordination of discrete‐time multi‐agent systems via relative output feedback

This paper investigates the joint effects of agent dynamic and network topology on the consensusability of linear discrete‐time multi‐agent systems via relative output feedback. An observer‐based distributed control protocol is proposed. A necessary and sufficient condition for consensusability under this control protocol is given, which explicitly reveals how the intrinsic entropy rate of the agent dynamic and the eigenratio of the undirected communication graph affect consensusability. As a special case, multi‐agent systems with discrete‐time double integrator dynamics are discussed where a simple control protocol directly using two‐step relative position feedback is provided to reach a consensus. Finally, the result is extended to solve the formation and formation‐based tracking problems. The theoretical results are illustrated by simulations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cooperative containment of discrete‐time linear multi‐agent systems

This paper investigates the cooperative containment control problem for discrete‐time multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics. Distributed containment control protocols on the basis of state feedback design and output feedback design are proposed. Necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for both the state feedback and output feedback cases, which are less conservative than those in the literature. These conditions depend on the spectral properties of the topology matrix. Then, effective algorithms are proposed to obtain control gain matrices for both cases based on H _∞ type Riccati design. Simulation examples are provided finally to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design methods. 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.     

The design of distributed suboptimal controller for multi‐agent systems

In this paper, the design of the distributed suboptimal controller for discrete‐time multi‐agent systems is considered. The distributed controllers, which only use the state information of itself and the relative states of its neighbors, are designed based on the topological structure of the system. The suboptimal feedback gain matrices of the distributed controllers are presented by using the ‘averaged’ optimization approach. It is showed that the distributed suboptimal controller is existent and unique. The design method of the distributed controller is obtained by the iteration procedure step by step. An example is given as an illustration of the proposed results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.