Asynchronous decentralised event-triggered control of multi-agent systems

In this paper, the consensus problem of first-order multi-agent systems under linear asynchronous decentralised event-triggered control is investigated. Both undirected and directed topologies are considered. In the analysis, the closed-loop multi-agent systems with the event-triggered control are modelled as switched systems. After proposing the decentralised event-triggered consensus protocols, decentralised state-dependent event conditions are derived, which act as switching signals. The consensus analyses are performed based on graph theory and stability results of switched systems. Under the event-triggered control schemes presented, consensus is reached with enlarged sampling periods and no Zeno behaviour. Simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.     

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.     

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.     

Mean square consensus of stochastic multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics by distributed event-triggered strategy

This paper is concerned with the problem of mean square consensus for nonlinear multi-agent systems with state-dependent noise perturbations. A distributed event-triggered mechanism which can be used to reduce the number of controller updates and communication load is developed to apply in stochastic dynamical systems. By combining the tools of graph theory and stochastic analysis, the sufficient conditions are given to ensure that mean square consensus in the multi-agent systems can be achieved exponentially. The convergence rate is also analytically derived. Moreover, the feasibility of the proposed distributed event-triggered strategy is further verified by exclusion of Zeno behaviour. Finally, some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.     

Decentralised consensus for multiple Lagrangian systems based on event-triggered strategy

This paper considers the decentralised event-triggered consensus problem for multi-agent systems with Lagrangian dynamics under undirected graphs. First, a distributed, leaderless, and event-triggered consensus control algorithm is presented based on the definition of generalised positions and velocities for all agents. There is only one triggering function for both the generalised positions and velocities and no Zeno behaviour exhibited under the proposed consensus strategy. Second, an adaptive event-triggered consensus control algorithm is proposed for such multi-agent systems with unknown constant parameters. Third, based on sliding-mode method, an event-triggered consensus control algorithm is considered for the case with external disturbance. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Observer-based quasi-containment of fractional-order multi-agent systems via event-triggered strategy

This paper is devoted to the quasi-containment control problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems (FOMASs). First, to reduce the frequency of communications, a novel observer-based event-triggered control mechanism which only relies on the information at the trigger-time is proposed. And then, by applying the theory of algebraic graph, matrix and fractional-order calculus, some sufficient consensus conditions based on the linear matrix inequality are established for achieving the consensus of FOMASs. In addition, the strict positive lower bound on the inter-event interval is obtained, which implies that the system is free from the Zeno behaviour. Finally, several simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Adaptive periodic event-triggered consensus for multi-agent systems subject to input saturation

This paper investigates the distributed adaptive event-triggered consensus control for a class of nonlinear agents. Each agent is subject to input saturation. Two kinds of distributed event-triggered control scheme are introduced, one is continuous-time-based event-triggered scheme and the other is sampled-data-based event-triggered scheme. Compared with the traditional event-triggered schemes in the existing literatures, the parameters of the event-triggered schemes in this paper are adaptively adjusted by using some event-error-dependent adaptive laws. The problem of simultaneously deriving the controller gain matrix and the event-triggering parameter matrix, and tackling the saturation nonlinearity is cast into standard linear matrix inequalities problem. A convincing simulation example is given to demonstrate the theoretical results.     

Leader-following consensus of nonlinear fractional-order multi-agent systems via event-triggered control

This paper investigates the consensus problem of leader-following multi-agent systems with fractional-order nonlinear dynamics. A typical event is defined as some error signals exceeding a given threshold. By applying Lyapunov functional approach and skills of computing function limit, consensus of the controlled multi-agent systems can be reached asymptotically. Meanwhile, the event-triggered algorithm can exclude Zeno behaviours. Finally, a numerical simulation is exploited to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical result.     

Quantised consensus of multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics

This paper studies the consensus problem of first-order and second-order multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics and quantised interactions. Continuous-time and impulsive control inputs are designed for the multi-agent systems on the logarithmic quantised relative state measurements of agents, respectively. By using nonsmooth analysis tools, we get some sufficient conditions for the consensus of multi-agent systems under the continuous-time inputs. Compared with continuous-time control inputs, impulsive distributed control inputs just use the state variables of the systems at discrete-time instances. Based on impulsive control theory, we prove that the multi-agent systems can reach consensus by choosing proper control gains and impulsive intervals. The simulation results are given to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Impulsive observer-based consensus control for multi-agent systems with time delay

The paper deals with the distributed consensus problem of a class of general linear multi-agent systems with time delay. Assuming that the state of the multi-agent system cannot be measured and the output of the multi-agent system is measured discontinuously, a novel impulsive observer is constructed. Based on the impulsive observer, a distributed consensus protocol is proposed for the multi-agent system with a directed communication topology. In view of the hybrid characteristic of the multi-agent system with the impulsive observer, a novel type of piecewise Lyapunov functional which can overcome the jump phenomena at impulsive times is introduced. Based on this, some sufficient conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities are presented such that the consensus of the multi-agent system can be achieved with an exponential convergence rate. A numerical example under two cases is given to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Edge event-triggered control for multi-agent systems under directed communication topologies

The edge event-triggered consensus control for multi-agent systems with single- or double-integrator dynamics under directed communication topologies is investigated in this paper. With the edge event-triggered sampling strategies, a class of novel consensus protocols is proposed to reduce control update frequency. The main features of the proposed edge event-triggered control include three aspects: (i) measurement errors are defined based on directed information flow and thus they allow that the communication topology is directed, (ii) each individual controller updates its output only when the associated edge event occurs and the control actions are independent of other agents, and (iii) the proposed edge event-triggered control does not exhibit Zeno behaviour and it is shown that the inter-event intervals are lower bounded by a positive constant. In the consensus analysis, matrix transformation techniques are used to convert the high-dimensional system into a low-dimensional system, and some sufficient consensus conditions are derived for the multi-agent systems with single- or double-integrator dynamics. Finally, the effectiveness of the edge event-triggered sampling strategies is illustrated by simulations.     

Cluster-delay consensus in multi-agent systems via pinning leader-following approach with intermittent effect

In this paper, the cluster consensus problem with delays of first-order nonlinear multi-agent systems is studied through pinning leader-following approach with periodic intermittent effect. The graph of the networked system is assumed to be directed and weakly connected. A new type of pinning consensus protocol with intermittent effect is designed according to the ways in which the agents link, specifically, the agents in each cluster are divided into three subsets due to the orientation of their topological degree, and each subset of agents is controlled by an individual law. A redefined notion on cluster consensus with two sorts of time delays is proposed in this article. Some consensus criteria are derived to guarantee that the agents in the same cluster asymptotically follow the virtual leader with a delay, while agents in different clusters reach consensus with delays via following their leaders. Some numerical simulations are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

多智能体系统分布式一致性算法研究现状

综述了多智能体系统分布式一致性问题的研究现状。从理论层面介绍了一致性问题的几种常见定义及与特性相关的主要参数;总结归纳了近年来几种一致性协议及其理论分析结果;分析和阐述了一致性问题的主要应用领域的进展。展望了未来的研究方向。     

Observer-based distributed consensus for general nonlinear multi-agent systems with interval control inputs

In this paper, observer-based distributed consensus for general nonlinear multi-agent systems with interval control inputs under strongly connected balanced topology is encountered when the relative states of agents are unavailable or undesirable. Theoretical analysis method is further extended to the case of general nonlinear multi-agent systems under switching setting. Moreover, tracking problem on the leader–follower scenario is also explicitly investigated under a mutual assumption that the communication graph, which represents the interaction among agents, contains a directed spanning tree with the leader as its root. It is shown that the consensus for underlying considered multi-agent systems can be desirable as long as the data missing rate does not exceed a certain threshold. Finally, simulation examples are presented to effectively corroborate the analytical findings.     

Robust consensus algorithm for second-order multi-agent systems with external disturbances

This article investigates the problem of robust consensus for second-order multi-agent systems with external disturbances. Based on a non-smooth backstepping control technique, a class of novel continuous non-smooth consensus algorithms are proposed for the multi-agent network with/without communication delays. The controller design is divided into two steps. First, for the kinematic subsystem, the velocity is regarded as a virtual input and designed such that the states consensus can be achieved asymptotically. Then for the dynamic subsystem, a finite-time control law is designed such that the virtual velocity can be tracked by the real velocity in a finite time. Under the proposed control law, it is shown that if the communication topology graph contains a directed spanning tree, the states consensus can be achieved asymptotically in the absence of disturbances. In the presence of disturbances, the steady-state errors of any two agents can reach a small region around the origin. By building a relationship between control parameters and the bound of steady tracking errors, it is demonstrated that the disturbance rejection performance of the resulting closed-loop system can be enhanced by adjusting the fractional power in the non-smooth controller. Finally, an example is given to verify the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Interval consensus problem of multi-agent systems in accordance with switching protocol

In this paper, we discuss the interval consensus problem of multi-agent systems by providing a special Laplacian of directed graphs. As one of the most important issues in the coordination control of multi-agent systems, the consensus problem requires that the output of several spatially distributed agents reach a common value that depends on the states of all agents. For the given consensus protocol and initial states, a fixed consensus value is obtained. The resulting consensus value, however, may not be ideal or meet the quality that we require from the multi-agent system. In this paper, by introducing two state-dependent switching parameters into the consensus protocol, the system given by the proposed protocol can globally asymptotically converge to a designated point on a special closed and bounded interval. In other words, the system given by the proposed protocol can globally asymptotically reach interval consensus and then the system can also achieve a generalised interval average consensus if the directed graph is balanced. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.     

Finite-time consensus for leader-following second-order multi-agent system

The finite-time consensus problems of second-order multi-agent system under fixed and switching network topologies are studied in this article. Based on the graph theory, LaSalle's invariance principle and the homogeneity with dilation, the finite-time consensus protocol of each agent using local information is designed. The leader-following finite-time consensus is analysed in detail. Moreover, some examples and simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.     

A novel group consensus protocol for heterogeneous multi-agent systems

In this paper, we consider the group consensus problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems. Based on the feature of heterogeneous agents, a novel protocol is proposed for heterogeneous multi-agent systems. First, the state transformation method is used and an equivalent system is obtained. Then, the group consensus problem is analysed and some sufficient and/or necessary conditions are given for heterogenous multi-agent systems under undirected and directed networks, respectively. Finally, simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Finite-time consensus for multi-agent systems via nonlinear control protocols

This paper investigates the fnite-time consensus problem of multi-agent systems with single and double integrator dynamics,respectively.Some novel nonlinear protocols are constructed for frst-order and second-order leader-follower multi-agent systems,respectively.Based on the fnite-time control technique,the graph theory and Lyapunov direct method,some theoretical results are proposed to ensure that the states of all the follower agents can converge to its leader agent s state in fnite time.Finally,some simulation results are presented to illustrate the efectiveness of our theoretical results.     

Leader-following consensus of fractional-order multi-agent systems via adaptive pinning control

In this paper, the leader-following consensus problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems is considered via adaptive pinning control. The dynamics of leader and all followers with linear and nonlinear functions are investigated, respectively. We assume that the node should be pinned if its in-degree is less than its out-degree in the paper. Under this assumption and based on the stability theory of fractional-order differential systems, some leader-following consensus criteria are derived, which are easily obtained by matrix inequalities. The control of each agent using local information is designed and detailed analysis of the leader-following consensus is presented. The design technique is based on algebraic graph theory and the Riccati inequality. Several simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.