Event‐triggered output consensus for heterogeneous multiagent systems with fixed and switching directed topologies

This paper studies the event‐triggered output consensus problem of heterogeneous linear multiagent systems characterized via fixed and switching directed graphs. With proper state‐dependent triggering functions, two new event‐triggered output consensus control schemes are proposed for each agent to achieve consensus. Notably, under the proposed control protocols, continuous communication among agents is not required in both controllers updating and triggering threshold detection, which means being completely continuous communication free. The communication instances are reduced significantly, and the periodic or high‐frequency communication is restrained. It is also ensured that events cannot be triggered infinitely in finite time (ie, the Zeno behavior is elegantly avoided). Meanwhile, the simulation examples are given to illustrate the theoretical analysis.     

Distributed adaptive integral‐type event‐triggered cooperative output regulation of switched multiagent systems by agent‐dependent switching with dwell time

This article presents a distributed adaptive integral‐type event‐triggered scheme (ETS) and an agent‐dependent switching strategy with dwell time to solve the cooperative output regulation problem for switched multiagent systems. First, by constructing an adaptive law to dynamically update the time‐varying coupling weights for all the communication links, a fully distributed ETS is designed, where only the local information of the topology is adopted. Based on the integral‐type triggering condition, the interevent interval is substantially enlarged and Zeno behavior is explicitly ruled out. Second, each agent permits all the subsystems to be unstabilizable. The switching signal for each agent is different, and any adjacent switches of each agent satisfy the preset dwell time. Under the designed switching strategy, the solvability of the regulation problem is guaranteed. Finally, the effectiveness of the designed ETS and switching strategy is substantiated by an example.     

Fully distributed bipartite output consensus of heterogeneous linear multiagent systems based on event‐triggered transmission mechanism

This study investigates the fully distributed bipartite output consensus issue of heterogeneous linear multiagent systems (HLMASs) based on event‐triggered transmission mechanism. Both the cooperative interaction and the antagonistic interaction between neighbor agents are considered. A fully distributed bipartite compensator consisting of time‐varying coupling gain and dynamic event‐triggered mechanism is first proposed to estimate the leader's states. Different from the existing schemes, the proposed compensator is independent of any global information of the network topology, is capable of achieving intermittent communication between neighbors, and is applicable for the signed communication topology. Then the distributed output feedback control protocol is developed such that the fully distributed bipartite event‐triggered output consensus problem can be achieved. Moreover, we extend the results in HLMASs without external disturbances to HLMASs with disturbances, which is more challenging in three cases (a) the disturbances are not available for measurement, (b) the disturbances suffered by each agent are heterogeneous, and (c) the disturbances are not required to be stable or bounded. It is proven that the proposed controllers fulfill the exclusion of Zeno behavior in two consensus problems. Finally, two examples are provided to illustrate the feasibility of the theoretical results.     

Global robust practical output regulation for nonlinear systems in output feedback form by output‐based event‐triggered control

In this paper, we study the event‐triggered global robust practical output regulation problem for a class of nonlinear systems in output feedback form with any relative degree. Our approach consists of the following three steps. First, we design an internal model and an observer to form the so‐called extended augmented system. Second, we convert the original problem into the event‐triggered global robust practical stabilization problem of the extended augmented system. Third, we design an output‐based event‐triggered control law and a Zeno‐free output‐based event‐triggered mechanism to solve the stabilization problem, which, in turn, leads to the solvability of the original problem. Finally, we apply our result to the controlled hyperchaotic Lorenz systems.     

Containment control of stochastic multiagent systems with semi‐Markovian switching topologies

The containment control of stochastic multiagent systems with semi‐Markov switching topologies is investigated in this paper. The general case that the distribution function of the sojourn time is dependent on both the current system mode and the target mode is considered. Taking state multiplicative noise into account and using stochastic techniques, sufficient conditions to achieve the containment control in the asymptotic mean square sense are obtained in a form of linear matrix inequalities and the controller design condition is given. Finally, a simulation is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.     

Output consensus for heterogeneous multiagent systems with Markovian switching network topologies

This paper investigates the output consensus problem of heterogeneous continuous‐time multiagent systems under randomly switching communication topologies. The switching mechanism is governed by a time‐homogeneous Markov process, whose states correspond to all possible communication topologies among agents. A novel dynamic consensus controller is proposed. The controller gains are designed based on the information of the expectation graph and the solutions to regulator equations. Furthermore, a necessary and sufficient condition is presented for output consensus of the controlled multiagent system in mean square sense. Finally, a simulation example is provided to corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

Robust practical output regulation for a class of uncertain linear minimum‐phase systems by output‐based event‐triggered control

In this paper, we consider the robust practical output regulation problem for a class of SISO uncertain linear minimum‐phase systems subject to external disturbances by an output‐based event‐triggered control law, where the reference inputs and the external disturbances are both generated by a so‐called exosystem with known dynamics. Our approach consists of two steps. First, on the basis of the internal model principle, we convert the problem into the robust practical stabilization problem of a well‐defined augmented system. Second, we design an output‐based event‐triggered mechanism and an output‐based event‐triggered control law to solve the stabilization problem, which in turn leads to the solvability of the original problem. What is more, we show that the event‐triggered mechanism prevents the Zeno behavior from happening. A numerical example is given to illustrate the design. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Data‐driven optimal event‐triggered consensus control for unknown nonlinear multiagent systems with control constraints

This paper considers optimal consensus control problem for unknown nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) subjected to control constraints by utilizing event‐triggered adaptive dynamic programming (ETADP) technique. To deal with the control constraints, we introduce nonquadratic energy consumption functions into performance indices and formulate the Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman (HJB) equations. Then, based on the Bellman's optimality principle, constrained optimal consensus control policies are designed from the HJB equations. In order to implement the ETADP algorithm, the critic networks and action networks are developed to approximate the value functions and consensus control policies respectively based on the measurable system data. Under the event‐triggered control framework, the weights of the critic networks and action networks are only updated at the triggering instants which are decided by the designed adaptive triggered conditions. The Lyapunov method is used to prove that the local neighbor consensus errors and the weight estimation errors of the critic networks and action networks are ultimately bounded. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed ETADP method.     

Decentralized event‐triggered circle formation control for multiagent systems via synchronous periodic event detection

This paper investigates circle formation problem of multiagent systems over a kind of strongly connected and weight‐unbalanced directed graphs. To solve the concerned problem, decentralized periodic event‐triggered algorithms subject to or not to time delays are proposed, which have the advantages of decreasing the overall burden of the network in terms of finite communication and control input updates. In such algorithms, each agent independently evaluates whether the locally sampled information of itself should be broadcasted to or not to its neighbors. Furthermore, another advantage of our proposed algorithms is to automatically exclude Zeno behavior, which should be seriously considered in a variety of event‐based network systems. Sufficient conditions on circle formation control are derived under which the states of all agents can be ensured to converge to some desired equilibrium point. Simulation results are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Adaptive mean-square consensus of heterogeneous multiagent systems with stochastic switching topologies

The leader–following consensus of linear heterogeneous multiagent systems is investigated in this paper. To comply with the most practical scenario, the communicating topologies among agents are assumed to switch stochastically and driven by a continuous-time discrete-state Markov process, whose state space corresponds to all the possible topologies. A novel distributed adaptive compensator is designed for the followers to reconstruct the exogenous signals without knowing the Laplacian matrix who is regarded as a global information, and sufficient conditions are given to ensure the compensator converges to the dynamic of the leader asymptotically in the mean square sense. Then, based on the compensator, we solved the consensus problem both by distributed state and measurement output feedback control schemes under output regulation framework, which allow followers to have nonidentical state dimensions. Finally, the theoretical results are demonstrated by a numerical example.     

Distributed integral‐type event‐triggered synchronization of multiagent systems

This paper investigates the synchronization problem of generic linear multiagent systems via integral‐type event‐triggered control. Each agent can only utilize the intermittent information of its neighboring agents in the control scheme. Based on the integral‐type event conditions, an event‐triggered control protocol is designed to guarantee the synchronization of multiagent systems, and Zeno behavior is excluded by showing the existence of a positive lower bound on the inter‐event intervals. Then, we propose the integral‐type event‐triggered control algorithms to study the leader‐following synchronization. It is shown that under the control algorithms all the followers track the leader and no Zeno behavior occurs. The effectiveness of the proposed control schemes is demonstrated by simulation examples.     

Formation control of singular multiagent systems with switching topologies

This paper is concerned with the time‐varying formation control problem for singular multiagent systems with switching topologies. First, in order to eliminate the pulse solution of singular systems and extend the formation function set, the distributed formation controller has been formulated based on the output information of the agents. Then, the explicit expression of formation position function is presented based on the impulse free and the equivalent transformation of singular multiagent systems. Next, the sufficient and necessary conditions of the feasibility of the formation function are provided. Moreover, the sufficient conditions of formation control of singular multiagent systems with switching topologies are presented and the algorithm is designed to solve the distributed controller. Finally, the validity of the proposed approaches is verified by numerical simulation in this paper.     

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.     

Target controllability of multiagent systems under fixed and switching topologies

In this article, the target controllability of multiagent systems under fixed and switching topologies is investigated, respectively. In the fixed topology setting, some necessary and/or sufficient algebraic and graph‐theoretic conditions are proposed, and the target controllable subspace is quantitatively studied by virtue of almost equitable graph vertex partitions. In the switching topology setting, based on the concepts of the invariant subspace and the target controllable state set, some necessary and sufficient algebraic conditions are obtained. Moreover, the target controllability is studied from the union graph perspective. The results show that when the union graph of all the possible topologies is target controllable, the multiagent system would be target controllable even if each of its subsystems is not. Numerical simulations are provided finally to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Distributed H∞ containment control of multiagent systems over switching topologies with communication time delay

In this study, we consider the problem of distributed H_∞ containment control for multiagent systems over switching communication topologies. There exists a constant time‐delay and the energy‐bounded communication disturbances in the information transmission process, which are considered. Using the relative output, we develop an observer‐based containment control scheme such that the followers asymptotically converge to the convex hull formed by the leaders with a guaranteed H_∞ performance level. By constructing a Lyapunov functional and using the inequality technique, sufficient conditions for the existence of such dynamic controllers are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.     

Observer‐based consensus control of nonlinear multiagent systems under semi‐Markovian switching topologies and cyber attacks

This article investigates the leader‐following consensus of nonlinear multiagent systems under semi‐Markovian switching topologies and cyber attacks. Unlike the related works, the communication channels considered herein are subjected to successful but recoverable attacks, and when the channels work well, the network topology is time‐varying and described by a semi‐Markovian switching topology. Due to the effect of attacks, the communication network is intermittently paralyzed. For the cases that the transition rates of semi‐Markovian switching topologies are completely known and partially unknown, observer‐based control protocols and sufficient conditions are proposed, respectively, to ensure the consensus of the systems in the mean square sense. Finally, simulation examples are given to illustrate the validity of the theoretical results.     

Exponential stability of output‐based event‐triggered control for switched singular systems

This paper presents the exponential stability of output‐based event‐triggered control for switched singular systems. An event‐triggered mechanism is introduced based on measure output, by employing the Lyapunov functional method and average dwell time approach, some sufficient conditions for exponential stability of the switched singular closed‐loop systems are derived. Furthermore, dynamic output feedback controller parameters are obtained. Lastly, a numerical example is given to illustrate the validity of the proposed solutions.     

Event‐triggered tracking control of heterogeneous multiagent systems based on two kinds of observers with asymmetric delay

In this paper, we consider the output tracking problem of a multiagent system with asymmetric delays and a switching topology. The multiagent system contains a leader and some followers, the dynamics of which are heterogeneous, and the output of the leader is available to only a subset of followers. We propose two types of observers to estimate states of the leader and reduce communication cost. For the informed followers that can directly obtain information of the leader, a common observer is given to reduce the complexity of observer design. Meanwhile, for the rest of the followers, a distributed observer with asymmetric communication delays for each follower is designed. The observer error system is transformed into a switched system. Through designing the average dwell‐time switching law and constructing multiple Lyapunov functionals, some sufficient conditions for stability of the observer error system are obtained. Furthermore, a distributed controller for followers based on the relative information is developed to track the output of the leader. Finally, an example is given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed results.     

Disturbance observer–based consensus tracking for nonlinear multiagent systems with switching topologies

This paper considers the leader‐follower consensus tracking problem for nonlinear multiagent systems with external disturbances and switching topologies. A distributed disturbance observer is constructed to estimate the disturbances suffered by the followers. Then, a distributed consensus protocol is proposed for the consensus tracking problem with disturbance rejection under a fixed directed topology based on the disturbance observer. Next, this result is extended to the case in which the switching communication topology only frequently but not always contains a directed spanning tree. By selecting the parameters appropriately such that the communication time satisfies various preset conditions, it is theoretically proven that the consensus tracking with disturbance rejection can also be achieved by the multiagent systems. Finally, a simulation example is presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control scheme.     

Sampled‐data consensus of multiagent systems with switching jointly connected topologies via time‐varying Lyapunov function approach

Consensus problem of multiagent systems with switching jointly connected topologies under sampled‐data control is studied in this article. The main contribution is that the consensus problem for such system is solved without the assumption that the system matrices are stable or critically stable. For this purpose, a time‐varying Lyapunov function method is utilized to describe the state characteristics with switching jointly connected topologies. Based on the time‐varying matrix of Lyapunov function, the “decline” characteristics at the switching instants is derived to compensate the divergence among the agents with disconnected topologies. Utilizing the “decline” characteristics, the overall consensus of such system can be guaranteed in the framework of dwell time. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed result is illustrated by two numerical examples.