Distributed event-triggered consensus for multi-agent systems with quantisation

This paper studies the consensus problem for multi-agent systems with quantised information communication via event-triggered control. First, the asynchronous event-triggered control for multi-agent systems is considered based on distributed uniform-quantised protocols. It is shown that practical consensus among agents is guaranteed and occurrence of Zeno behaviour is prevented under the designed event-triggering mechanisms. Second, under the proposed protocols using logarithmic quantised information, both synchronous and asynchronous event-triggered control algorithms are given to solve the practical consensus problem. Meanwhile, Zeno behaviour of the closed-loop systems can be excluded under the proposed event-triggered algorithms. Finally, numerical simulations are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the derived results.     

Evaluating a new communication protocol for real-time distributed control

The recent trend in distributed automation and control systems has been towards event-triggered system architectures such as UML and IEC 61499. Although existing communication protocols (e.g., Ethernet) can support high-level communication within these systems, there is contention as to which low-level protocol to use, or if any exist that meet the requirements of being event-triggered and hard real-time. This paper proposes a new way to measure communication performance. The goal of the new measurement method is to stress the necessity that a real-time communication protocol needs to be both efficient and fair. This is illustrated by comparing three communication strategies: Controller Area Network (CAN), Time-Triggered CAN (TTCAN) and Escalating Priority CAN (EPCAN). The first two represent the extremes between event-triggered and time-triggered communication strategies; the third is introduced to illustrate the benefits of a new event-based communication protocol proposed by the authors.     

Synchronisation of linear high-order multi-agent systems via event-triggered control with limited communication

In this paper, the synchronisation problems of multi-agent systems with asynchronous and synchronous event-triggered control under a novel event-triggered condition are solved. Our event-triggered control protocols only require each agent to send its state information to its neighbouring agents when an event-triggered condition is satisfied. Such control protocols substantially reduce the cost of communication. It is worth mentioning that the proposed protocols also ensure that the synchronisation of the multi-agent system with asynchronous and synchronous event-triggered can be achieved asymptotically without Zeno-behaviour. Meanwhile, an ultimate synchronisation trajectory is given. Moreover, our results are applied to solve the formation control problem. Some numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of our protocols.     

基于IEEE1451的靶场分布式无线传感器网络构建方案

摘要：为了解决兵器试验靶场“异常弹”和散布大的弹箭的弹着点定位问题，提出了基于IEEE1451标准和ZigBee、WiFi通信协议构建一种异构分簇网络的方案。论文首先介绍了IEEE 1451 协议族，阐述了系统总体结构，对比了三中无线通讯协议，优选出ZigBee、WiFi通信协议构建无线传感器网络。针对靶场分布式测试结构，给出了簇头资源分配方案和簇头节点、网关节点硬件设计方案及结构设计方案。最后，分析了IEEE1451协议的实现形式，并详细讨论了服务器端的软件设计、功能模块划分。实验结果表明：该方案实现了靶场上多节点多通信方式的无线传感器网络构建，网络具有良好的稳定性、扩展性及远程控制能力，为其他无线传感器网络构建提供了很好的应用案例     

Fully distributed optimization of second-order systems with disturbances based on event-triggered control

This paper studies the distributed optimization problem of second-order multiagent systems containing external disturbances. To reject the external disturbances and lead agents' states to converge to the optimal consensus point, an adaptive event-triggered controller is proposed based on the internal model principle. With the adaptive mechanism, both the controller and the event-triggering condition do not contain the parameters related to global information, such as the maximum Lipschitz constant and the minimum strongly convex constant of local cost functions, and hence the event-triggered controller is fully distributed. By utilizing the event-triggered scheme, the consumption of communication among neighbors and the computing resources are saved. Furthermore, with the Lyapunov analysis framework, the optimal consensus can be proved to achieve and Zeno behavior is excluded from the event-triggering condition. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed protocol is verified by numerical simulations.     

事件触发下多智能体系统固定时间二分一致性

针对具有符号有向图的一阶多智能体系统,研究了其固定时间二分一致性问题。为降低控制过程中多智能体系统的能量损耗,提出了一种基于事件触发机制的分布式控制协议。以图论和李雅普诺夫理论为主要研究工具,给出了多智能体系统在所设计控制协议作用下实现固定时间二分一致性的充分条件和与系统初始状态无关的收敛时间上界,并证明了使用该协议可以有效避免对智能体的连续控制和Zeno行为的发生。数值算例验证了所得理论结果的有效性。     

Aperiodic event-triggered robust model predictive control for linear parameter-varying system with round-robin protocol

This article investigates the robust model predictive control (MPC) problem for networked control systems represented by the linear parameter-varying model, in which an event-triggered strategy and the round-robin (RR) protocol scheduling locate at the sensor-to-controller and controller-to-actuator channels, respectively. By considering the problems of system state immeasurable and communication burden in engineering application, an output feedback controller that combines the aperiodic event-triggered strategy is applied, where the triggering condition is designed in a time-varying fashion. In addition, in order to avoid unexpected data collisions, the RR protocol is utilized to schedule a shared network and guarantee the efficiency of the control system. The controller parameters are obtained by solving an online convex robust MPC optimization problem, and the feasibility of the optimization problem and closed-loop stability are also addressed. The effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results is illustrated by a numerical simulation example.     

聚类消息中间件构造技术

为了提高分布式异构系统的通信效率,提出了一种聚类消息中间件的构造技术,该技术使用EPr/TN网形式化描述协议,并对协议做聚类处理产生相似度最大的协议簇,然后利用协议簇构建消息中间件。与传统的消息中间件相比,该技术构建的消息中间件不仅能够有效实现异构通信协议的转换,而且减少了协议映射查找次数,提高了分布式异构系统的通信效率。     

Sampling-based self-triggered coordination control for multi-agent systems with application to distributed generators

This work investigates the coordination control problem for multiple distributed generation (DG) units with a hierarchical control structure. At the secondary control level, an event-triggered power sharing strategy based on the concept of multi-agent consensus has been proposed for the DG coordination control. Unlike existing consensus-based DG control approaches, the proposed control algorithm is based on sampled data. Thus the event triggering and controller updating actions can only be executed at the sampling time instants. To further reduce the amount of communication among DGs, the proposed event-triggered algorithm is extended to a self-triggered algorithm, where the inter-agent communication transmission is no longer required to be executed at each sampling time instant. The case study results show that the self-triggered algorithm can achieve nearly the same performance on DG coordination as that of the event-triggered algorithm, while significantly reduces the amount of communication.     

Event-triggered containment control for multi-agent systems under hybrid cyber attacks

This paper studies event-triggered containment control problem of multi-agent systems (MASs) under deception attacks and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. First, to save limited network resources, an event-triggered mechanism is proposed for MASs under hybrid cyber attacks. Different from the existing event-triggered mechanisms, the negative influences of deception attacks and DoS attacks are considered in the proposed triggering function. The communication frequencies between agents are reduced. Then, based on the proposed event-triggered mechanism, a corresponding control protocol is proposed to ensure that the followers will converge to the convex hull formed by the leaders under deception attacks and DoS attacks. Compared with the previous researches about containment control, in addition to hybrid cyber attacks being considered, the nonlinear functions related to the states of the agents are applied to describe the deception attack signals in the MAS. By orthogonal transformation of deception attack signals, the containment control problem under deception attacks and DoS attacks is reformulated as a stability problem. Then, the sufficient conditions on containment control can be obtained. Finally, a set of simulation example is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Event-triggered distributed containment control of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems by an output regulation approach

In this paper, the event-triggered distributed containment control of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems in the output regulation framework is studied. The leaders are treated as exosystems and the containment control problem will be converted into an output regulation problem. An event-triggered protocol is then designed for each follower by the output information of neighbours. It is proved that the followers can asymptotically converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by multiple leaders under the designed protocol and triggered strategy. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed protocol and triggered condition can exclude Zeno behaviour, so the feasibility of the control strategy is verified. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.     

事件触发控制下二阶多智能体的量化一致性

针对多智能体系统网络通信过程中信息需要量化的情况,研究了二阶多智能体系统在事件触发控制下的量化一致性。基于事件触发控制策略,提出一致性协议,并采用对数量化器对控制输入进行量化处理。利用Lyapunov稳定性理论,对系统进行一致性分析,得到了多智能体系统渐近趋于一致的充分条件。仿真结果说明了理论分析的有效性。     

Decentralized Event-Triggered Average Consensus for Multi-Agent Systems in CPSs with Communication Constraints

The paper investigates decentralized event-triggered average consensus problem for multi-agent systems in cyberphysical systems (CPSs) with communication constraints. To reduce communication burden and improve the communication efficiency of multi-agent systems in CPSs, event-trigger is distributed at subsystem/agent level. A multi-agent system is then modeled as a reduced dimension hybrid system by taking into account decentralized event-triggered mechanism, communication delays and data dropouts within one framework. Some sufficient conditions for average consensus of each agent and an upper bound of communication delay and maximal allowable number of successive data dropouts (MANSD) are obtained, which can conveniently provide the relationship between the triggering parameters, communication constraints and the system stability. Specially, the quantitative relationship between the triggering parameters, MANSD and the system stability is derived. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.      

分布式事件触发多自主体领导跟随一致性研究

为了提高系统的通信效率和能源利用率,减少多自主体系统硬件资源的浪费,提出了只需要自主体自身及其最近邻居节点信息的分布式事件触发控制算法。研究了带有动态领导者的二阶多自主体系统领导跟随一致性问题。应用矩阵论和现代控制理论研究了在分布式事件触发机制下的二阶系统,得到了基于事件触发机制的多自主体系统协同运动的收敛条件。通过理论分析与计算表明,在此控制协议下不会存在芝诺行为,并且多自主体系统可以实现领导跟随一致性。最后,应用计算机仿真验证了本文所提控制协议的可靠性。     

On design and formal verification of SNSP: a novel real-time communication protocol for safety-critical applications

The correct operation of time-triggered protocols highly depends on the well-synchronized clocks of the system. To maintain the global time, one strict constraint must be exerted on communication activities (e.g. temporal padding and sparse time base etc.), which not only increases complexity of the protocol design but also incurs a penalty in the network utilization. While for event-triggered protocols, it is difficult to achieve the real-time requirement and determinism. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the combination of the advantages of these two categories of protocol for applications in different scenarios. This paper proposes the Safe Node Sequence Protocol (SNSP), which is a variant of full time-triggered protocol TTP/C. In SNSP, a strict node sequence is defined and the order of communication events is established by this pre-configured order without binding to global time, so the protocol changes communication activities and error detection to an event-triggered model. Therefore, SNSP possesses the characteristics of both time-triggered and event-triggered model. Also, the potential impact of global time, such as byzantine clock failure, on the protocol is eliminated. At the same time, the formal verification of SNSP is much easier in the absence of global time. Moreover, we model the protocol and use formal checker SPIN to validate the basic fault-tolerant requirement of SNSP. The simulation results show the protocol enables better resource utilization and is more effective.     

基于事件触发的时变拓扑多智能体系统编队控制

针对资源受限的时变拓扑多智能体系统的编队控制问题,提出一种基于复合误差信息事件触发机制以减少不必要的信息传输,降低带宽占用,并设计了多智能体系统的编队控制协议和分布式事件触发机制.通过将多智能体系统的编队控制问题转化为闭环延时系统的稳定性问题,构造Lyapunov-Krasovskii函数并利用线性矩阵不等式技术,给出多智能体系统实现编队的充分条件.最后,通过仿真验证了所提出方法的有效性.     

Distributed event-triggered consensus strategy for multi-agent systems under limited resources

The paper proposes a distributed structure to address an event-triggered consensus problem for multi-agent systems which aims at concurrent reduction in inter-agent communication, control input actuation and energy consumption. Following the proposed approach, asymptotic convergence of all agents to consensus requires that each agent broadcasts its sampled-state to the neighbours and updates its control input only at its own triggering instants, unlike the existing related works. Obviously, it decreases the network bandwidth usage, sensor energy consumption, computation resources usage and actuator wears. As a result, it facilitates the implementation of the proposed consensus protocol in the real-world applications with limited resources. The stability of the closed-loop system under an event-based protocol is proved analytically. Some numerical results are presented which confirm the analytical discussion on the effectiveness of the proposed design.     

Event-triggered robust distributed state estimation for sensor networks with state-dependent noises

This paper is concerned with the event-triggered distributed state estimation problem for a class of uncertain stochastic systems with state-dependent noises and randomly occurring uncertainties over sensor networks. An event-triggered communication scheme is proposed in order to determine whether the measurements on each sensor should be transmitted to the estimators or not. The norm-bounded uncertainty enters into the system in a random way. Through available output measurements from not only the individual sensor but also its neighbouring sensors, a sufficient condition is established for the desired distributed estimator to ensure that the estimation error dynamics are exponentially mean-square stable. These conditions are characterized in terms of the feasibility of a set of linear matrix inequalities, and then the explicit expression is given for the distributed estimator gains. Finally, a simulation example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed event-triggered distributed state estimation scheme.     

Cooperative output regulation of heterogeneous multi-agent systems based on passivity

This paper investigates the problem of cooperative output regulation of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems. A passive framework is presented for the stabilisation analysis of cooperative output regulation, which can overcome the difficulty caused by the fact that the global dynamics of heterogeneous multi-agent systems depends on the global communication structure. An adaptive distributed observer is proposed to estimate the state of the exosystem, and the proposed distributed observer is independent of any global information of the communication graph. Based on passivity design and adaptive distributed observer, both a distributed state feedback and a distributed output feedback protocol are designed for output synchronisation of heterogeneous multi-agent systems. The gain matrices of the distributed protocols and observers are obtained by a Riccati equation design approach. Furthermore, sufficient local conditions for solving the problem of cooperative output regulation of heterogeneous multi-agent systems are presented. Finally, numerical simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed control schemes.     

Distributed Fault-Tolerant Containment Control for Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems Under Directed Network Topology via Hierarchical Approach

This paper investigates the distributed fault-tolerant containment control (FTCC) problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) under a directed network topology. The proposed control framework which is independent on the global information about the communication topology consists of two layers. Different from most existing distributed fault-tolerant control (FTC) protocols where the fault in one agent may propagate over network, the developed control method can eliminate the phenomenon of fault propagation. Based on the hierarchical control strategy, the FTCC problem with a directed graph can be simplified to the distributed containment control of the upper layer and the fault-tolerant tracking control of the lower layer. Finally, simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.