A Lyapunov‐based small‐gain approach on design of triggering conditions in event‐triggered control systems

This paper studies a Lyapunov‐based small‐gain approach on design of triggering conditions in event‐triggered control systems. The event‐triggered control closed‐loop system is formulated as a hybrid system model. Firstly, by viewing the event‐triggered control closed‐loop system as a feedback connection of two smaller hybrid subsystems, the Lyapunov‐based small‐gain theorems for hybrid systems are applied to design triggering conditions. Then, a new class of triggering condition, the safe, adjustable‐type triggering condition, is proposed to tune the parameters of triggering conditions by practical regulations. This is conducive to break the restriction of the conservation of theoretical results and improve the practicability of event‐triggered control strategy. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the efficiency and the feasibility of the proposed results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive event‐triggered control for nonlinear discrete‐time systems

This paper focuses on the analysis and the design of event‐triggering scheme for discrete‐time systems. Both static event‐triggering scheme (SETS) and adaptive event‐triggering scheme (AETS) are presented for discrete‐time nonlinear and linear systems. What makes AETS different from SETS is that an auxiliary dynamic variable satisfying a certain difference equation is incorporated into the event‐triggering condition. The sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability of the closed‐loop event‐triggered control systems under both two triggering schemes are given. Especially, for the linear systems case, the minimum time between two consecutive control updates is discussed. Also, the quantitative relation among the system parameters, the preselected triggering parameters in AETS, and a quadratic performance index are established. Finally, the effectiveness and respective advantage of the proposed event‐triggering schemes are illustrated on a practical example. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Periodic event‐triggered control for distributed networked multiagents with asynchronous communication: A predictive control approach

This paper investigates the periodic event‐triggered control problem for distributed networked multiagent systems with interconnected nonlinear dynamics subject to asynchronous communication. A method of state trajectory estimation for the interconnected neighboring agents over each prediction horizon with guaranteed error bounds is addressed to handle the asynchronous communication. Based on it, a distributed robust model predictive control (MPC) is proposed with a distributed periodic event‐triggered scheme for each agent. According to this algorithm, each subsystem generates presumed state trajectories for all its upstream neighbors and computes its own control locally. By checking the designed triggering condition periodically, the optimization problem of MPC will be implemented and solved when the local error of the subsystem exceeds a specified threshold. Then, the optimized control input will be determined and applied until the next time instant when the triggering condition is invoked. Moreover, sufficient condition for ensuring feasibility of the designed algorithm is conducted, along with the analysis of asymptotic stabilization of the closed‐loop system. The illustrative example for a set of coupled Van der Pol oscillators is reported to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Event‐triggered fault‐tolerant control and scheduling codesign for nonlinear networked control systems with medium‐access constraint and packet disordering

This paper studies an event‐triggered communication, scheduling, and fault‐tolerant control codesign method for nonlinear networked control systems with medium‐access constraint, delay, and packet disordering using an adaptive approximation method and adaptive technique. By considering nonlinear dynamics and controller reconfiguration, a novel event‐triggering scheme with an adjustable triggering condition and adaptive triggering thresholds is proposed. The stochastic event‐driven actuator scheduling is investigated without the assumption that the controller can access the current modes of the actuators. By considering the Markovian delay and focusing on the transmitter node, a new packet reordering approach is used to cope with packet disordering. This paper proposes an active fault‐tolerant control method, in which the nominal controller is redesigned for the postfault plant by using the fault information provided by an estimator. It is proven that the estimation error of the estimator is uniformly bounded, the reconfigurable controller and event‐trigger ensure the boundedness in probability of the state tracking error before and after the fault occurrence in the presence of medium‐access constraint, delay, and packet disordering while reducing communication load. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated in the numerical example.     

Event‐triggered control for discrete‐time linear systems subject to bounded disturbance

This paper considers event‐triggering controller design for directly observable discrete‐time linear systems subject to bounded disturbances. The main control objective is diminishing the influence aroused by the disturbances despite a reduction of the communication. Criteria are given to design feedback controllers in order to guarantee that systems are uniformly ultimately bounded in an ellipsoidal‐positive invariant set, which is used as an estimate of control performance for disturbance rejection. An optimization for minimizing the ellipsoidal‐positive invariant set is achieved by synthesizing the feedback control gain and the given event‐triggering conditions in LMIs. The effectiveness and applicability of the controller are illustrated by simulations and experimental implementations. Copyright © 2015 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.     

Distributed event‐triggered consensus control with fully continuous communication free for general linear multi‐agent systems under directed graph

This paper considers the distributed event‐triggered consensus problem for multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics under a directed graph. We propose a novel distributed event‐triggered consensus controller with state‐dependent threshold for each agent to achieve consensus. In this strategy, continuous communication in both controller update and triggering condition monitoring is not required, which means the proposed strategy is fully continuous communication free. Each agent only needs to monitor its own state continuously to determine if the event is triggered. Additionally, the approach shown here provides consensus with guaranteed positive inter‐event time intervals. Therefore, there is no Zeno behavior under the proposed consensus control algorithm. Finally, numerical simulations are given to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Event‐triggered MPC design for distributed systems toward global performance

This paper studies the coordination control problem of stabilizing large‐scale dynamically coupled systems via a novel event‐triggered distributed model predictive control (DMPC) approach. In order to achieve global performance, certain constraints relevant to the triggering instant are imposed on the DMPC optimization problem, and triggering mechanisms are designed by taking into account coupling influences. Specifically, the triggering conditions derived from the feasibility and stability analysis are based on the local subsystem state and the information received from its neighbors. Based on these triggering mechanisms, the event‐triggered DMPC algorithm is built, and a dual‐mode strategy is adopted. As a result, the controllers solve the optimization problem and coordinate with each other asynchronously, which reduces the amount of communication and lowers the frequency of controller updates while achieving global performance. The recursive feasibility of the proposed event‐triggered DMPC algorithm is proved, and sufficient parameter conditions about the prediction horizon and the triggering threshold are established. It shows that the system state can be gradually driven into the terminal set under the proposed strategy. Finally, an academic example and a realistic simulation problem to the water level of a 4‐tank system are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Finite ‐gain problem for networked control systems with delays via event‐triggered control

By using the integrals of the signals to construct the triggering condition, integral‐based event‐triggered control can relax the requirement of persistent decrease on the Lyapunov function and, then, may yield better sampling performance. This paper studies the disturbance rejection problem for the integral‐based event‐triggered control systems with transmission delays and observer‐based output feedbacks. An integral‐based triggering condition is employed to generate the events. Two asynchronous models are implemented in the different sides of the networks. The model in the observer node is used to detect the events, whereas the model in the controller node is used to calculate the control signals. This structure contributes to avoiding the Zeno behavior, and then, an estimation on the lower bound of the interevent times is provided. Moreover, the criteria on the parameter in the triggering condition and on the bounds of the transmission delays are given to guarantee the desired disturbance rejection performance. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the efficiency and feasibility of the obtained results.     

Robust feedback stabilization using high‐gain observer via event triggering

In this article, the problem of robust output feedback stabilization of single‐input single‐output nonlinear systems is studied in the event‐triggering framework. In this work, an event‐triggered output feedback law based on a high‐gain observer is constructed, which guarantees the stability of closed‐loop system. First, the high‐gain observer with a triggering scheme is designed to estimate the plant state in the presence of external disturbances subject to any satisfactory accuracy of the estimation error. The observer‐based triggering mechanism decides the transmission of plant output to the observer by observing a certain event condition. Similarly, another triggering mechanism is designed using the estimated state of observer that triggers the control signal to be updated only when it is satisfied. Under this proposed event‐triggering framework, the stability of closed‐loop system is then analyzed. Here, we provide the simplified design technique, in which the high‐gain parameter and the triggering thresholds can be selected independently to achieve any desired bound for the plant trajectory. The results are finally demonstrated through simulation of a numerical example.     

Cooperative output regulation of heterogeneous multiagent systems based on event‐triggered control with fixed and switching topologies

This paper addresses the cooperative output regulation problem of multiagent systems with fixed and switching topologies. Each agent is a heterogeneous linear system, and the output of the exosystem can be available to only a subset of agents. For the agents that can directly access the exosystem, a common observer based on an event‐triggered strategy is constructed to estimate the exogenous signal for feedback control design. For the rest of the agents, estimators based on an event‐triggered mechanism to acquire the estimation value of the exogenous signal are designed under some essential assumptions. A decentralized event‐triggered formulation is considered first by applying a Lyapunov function for a fixed topology. Furthermore, a topology‐dependent triggering condition and the average dwell‐time switching law are deduced simultaneously by using multiple Lyapunov functions for switching topologies. Under communication constraints, we propose observer‐based and estimator‐based feedback controllers to solve the cooperative output regulation problem using available local information among agents. Two examples are finally provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.     

An adaptive event‐triggering scheme for networked interconnected control system with stochastic uncertainty

This paper investigates the problem of adaptive event‐triggering scheme for networked interconnected systems to relieve the burden of the network bandwidth. The data releasing is triggered by an adaptive event‐triggering device. The triggering condition depends on the state information at both the latest releasing instant and the current sampling instant. The threshold of the triggering parameter is achieved online rather than a predetermined constant. Taking the network‐induced delays and the coupling delays of the subsystems into account, together with the hybrid adaptive event‐triggering scheme and the stochastic uncertainty, we propose an unified model of the networked interconnected system. Sufficient conditions for the mean square stability and stabilization of the interconnected systems are developed by using Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional approach. A co‐designed method is put forward to obtain the controller gains and the weight of the triggering condition simultaneously. Finally, an example is provided to demonstrate the design method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear bilateral teleoperators under event‐driven communication with constant time delays

Bilateral teleoperation systems provide a platform for human operators to remotely manipulate slave robots in engaging various tasks in remote environments. Most of the previous studies in bilateral teleoperation were developed under continuous transmission or periodic communication with fixed data exchanging rates. This paper presents control schemes for bilateral teleoperation systems using nonperiodic event‐driven communication. By using P‐like and PD‐like controllers, this study proposes triggering conditions for teleoperators to reduce network access frequency so that robots only transmit output signals when necessary. Stability and position tracking of the control system are studied, and nonzero minimum interevent time is guaranteed. The proposed event‐driven teleoperation is studied with a velocity estimator to avoid the requirement of velocity information in the controller and triggering condition. Without velocity measurements, the boundedness of tracking errors and stability are ensured for teleoperation systems under event‐driven communication. Simulations and experiments are illustrated to validate the performance of the proposed event‐driven teleoperation systems.     

Event‐triggered global leader‐following consensus of a group of neutrally stable linear systems subject to input saturation

This paper studies the global leader‐following consensus problem for a multiagent system using event‐triggered linear feedback control laws. The leader agent is described by a neutrally stable linear system and the follower agents are also described by a neutrally stable linear system but with saturating input. Both the state‐feedback case and the output‐feedback case are considered. In each case, an event‐triggered control law is constructed for each follower agent and an event‐triggering strategy is designed for updating these control laws. These event‐triggered control laws are shown to achieve global leader‐following consensus when the communication topology among the follower agents is strongly connected and detailed balanced and the leader is a neighbor of at least one follower agent. The Zeno behavior is excluded. The theoretical results are illustrated by simulation.     

基于事件触发非线性多智能体系统的固定时间一致性

本文研究了在有向拓扑下,带有非线性动力学多智能体系统的固定时间一致性问题.提出了一种新的基于事件触发机制的非线性控制策略,对于每个智能体给出了基于状态信息的事件触发条件,当状态误差满足所给条件时才触发事件,能有效的减小系统的能量耗散和控制器的更新频次.利用Lyapunov稳定性理论和代数图论,证明在该控制策略下,多智能体系统在固定时间能实现领导跟随一致性,且不存在Zeno行为.相较于有限时间一致性策略,采用固定时间一致性策略系统的收敛时间不再依赖于系统的初始状态.最后,仿真实例验证了理论结果的有效性.     

Decentralized event‐triggered control of large‐scale nonlinear systems

This paper studies the decentralized event‐triggered control of large‐scale nonlinear systems. We consider a class of decentralized control systems that are transformable into an interconnection of input‐to‐state stable subsystems with the sampling errors as the inputs. The sampling events for each subsystem are triggered by a threshold signal, and the threshold signals for the subsystems are independent with each other for the decentralized implementation. By appropriately designing the event‐triggering mechanisms, it is shown that infinitely fast sampling can be avoided for each subsystem and asymptotic regulation is achievable for the large‐scale system. The proposed design is based on the ISS small‐gain arguments, and is validated by a benchmark example of controlling two coupled inverted pendulums.     

Event‐based global stabilization of linear systems via a saturated linear controller

This paper investigates the problem of event‐based linear control of systems subject to input saturation. First, for discrete‐time systems with neutrally stable or double‐integrator dynamics, novel event‐triggered control algorithms with non‐quadratic event‐triggering conditions are proposed to achieve global stabilization. Compared with the quadratic event‐triggering conditions, the non‐quadratic ones can further reduce unnecessary control updates for the input‐saturated systems. Furthermore, for continuous‐time systems with neutrally stable or double‐integrator dynamics, because an inherent lower bound of the inter‐event time does not exist for systems subject to input saturation, novel event‐triggered control algorithms with an appropriately selected minimum inter‐event time are proposed to achieve global stabilization. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Model Based Robust Control Law for Linear Event‐Triggered System

This paper proposes a framework to design an event‐triggered based robust control law for linear uncertain system. The robust control law is realized through both static and dynamic event‐triggering approach to reduce the computation and communication usages. Proposed control strategies ensure stability in the presence of bounded matched and mismatched system uncertainties. Derivation of event‐triggering rule with a non‐zero positive inter‐event time and corresponding stability criteria for uncertain event‐triggered system are the key contributions of this paper. The efficacy of proposed algorithm is carried out through a comparative study of simulation results.     

An adaptive critic approach to event‐triggered robust control of nonlinear systems with unmatched uncertainties

In this paper, we develop a novel event‐triggered robust control strategy for continuous‐time nonlinear systems with unmatched uncertainties. First, we build a relationship to show that the event‐triggered robust control can be obtained by solving an event‐triggered nonlinear optimal control problem of the auxiliary system. Then, within the framework of reinforcement learning, we propose an adaptive critic approach to solve the event‐triggered nonlinear optimal control problem. Unlike typical actor‐critic dual approximators used in reinforcement learning, we employ a unique critic approximator to derive the solution of the event‐triggered Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equation arising in the nonlinear optimal control problem. The critic approximator is updated via the gradient descent method, and the persistence of excitation condition is necessary. Meanwhile, under a newly proposed event‐triggering condition, we prove that the developed critic approximator update rule guarantees all signals in the auxiliary closed‐loop system to be uniformly ultimately bounded. Moreover, we demonstrate that the obtained event‐triggered optimal control can ensure the original system to be stable in the sense of uniform ultimate boundedness. Finally, a F‐16 aircraft plant and a nonlinear system are provided to validate the present event‐triggered robust control scheme.