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.     

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.     

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.     

具有通信时延的二阶多智能体系统有限时间一致性跟踪控制

针对具有通信时延的二阶多智能体系统的有限时间一致性控制问题,分别研究了具有固定拓扑和切换拓扑网络结构情形下的二阶多智能体系统的有限时间一致性。为使多智能体系统能在有限时间内可以达到一致,引入一致性控制增益矩阵并设计了相应的基于相对位置和相对速度的时延状态误差有限时间一致性控制算法,利用系统模型转换,泛函微分方程稳定性理论和有限时间Lyapunov稳定性定理得到了使系统在有限时间内达到一致跟踪的最大时延上界值。最后,仿真实验结果验证了所得理论的正确性和有效性。     

Accelerating average consensus by using the information of second-order neighbours with communication delays

This article investigates the problem of accelerating average consensus in undirected and connected networks. The protocol using the information of second-order neighbours with communication delays is proposed and the delay effects on stability and the convergence speed are analysed, respectively, under an assumption about the network topologies. It is proved that, for appropriate communication delays, networks reach average consensus faster under the proposed protocol than the standard protocol using only the information of first-order neighbours. Finally, a simulation example is presented to illustrate the proposed results.     

Leader-following control of perturbed second-order integrator systems with binary relative information

In this paper, we study the leader-following control problem for second-order integrator systems with bounded input disturbances using only binary relative position and velocity information. The leader is allowed to be dynamically evolving with a bounded acceleration which is unknown to any of the followers. With the proposed distributed controller, we prove that despite the fact that only very coarse relative information is available, robust finite-time leader-following control can be achieved by properly choosing the control gains. As an extension, robust finite-time formation control can also be achieved with the proposed control strategy using only binary relative information. Two simulation examples are provided to illustrate the results.     

Allowable sampling period for consensus control of multiple general linear dynamical agents in random networks

This article studies the consensus problem for a group of sampled-data general linear dynamical agents over random communication networks. Dynamic output feedback protocols are applied to solve the consensus problem. When the sampling period is sufficiently small, it is shown that as long as the mean topology has globally reachable nodes, the mean square consensus can be achieved by selecting protocol parameters so that n???1 specified subsystems are simultaneously stabilised. However, when the sampling period is comparatively large, it is revealed that differing from low-order integrator multi-agent systems the consensus problem may be unsolvable. By using the hybrid dynamical system theory, an allowable upper bound of sampling period is further proposed. Two approaches to designing protocols are also provided. Simulations are given to illustrate the validity of the proposed approaches.     

Finite-time consensus tracking for multi-agent systems with inherent uncertainties and disturbances

In this paper, finite-time consensus tracking is investigated via time-varying feedback for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems (NMASs). The presence of inherent uncertainties and disturbances in the NMASs highlights the main novelty : (1) The inherent uncertainties imply that more serious unknowns and time-variations are allowed in the nonlineartities and the control coefficients of the NMASs. (2) The inherent disturbances mean that the upper bound of the disturbances is unknown. To compensate the inherent uncertainties and disturbances, time-varying protocols are proposed by integrating time-varying technique and sliding mode method. Based on the proposed protocols, the finite-time leader-following consensus and finite-time containment are achieved under directed graph. Finally, the validation of the proposed protocols is verified by two examples.     

Finite-time formation of multiple agents based on multiple virtual leaders

The finite-time formation problem of multiple agents aims to find a control protocol to guarantee finite-time consensus, in which every agent can be in the right position and keep in the given formation configuration efficiently. However, it is hard to achieve a stable state if only by setting one virtual leader in multiple tasks system. This paper presents a formation controller design for a second-order multiple agents to address the finite-time formation problem. In the procedure, each agent has a virtual leader, and then a control law is designed so that the agents can keep pace with their virtual leaders in terms of speed and position. Accordingly, the controller can ensure that the relative positions among different agents and the trajectory of the whole formation can be specified in advance. Moreover, since the closed-loop system is finite-time stable, which implies that the required formation is attainable without a deviation in finite time. Finally, the stability analysis is proved by applying the graph theory, Lyapunov stability theory and homogeneous system theory. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated by numerical simulations.     

Robust finite-time tracking control of nonholonomic mobile robots without velocity measurements

The problem of robust finite-time trajectory tracking of nonholonomic mobile robots with unmeasurable velocities is studied. The contributions of the paper are that: first, in the case that the angular velocity of the mobile robot is unmeasurable, a composite controller including the observer-based partial state feedback control and the disturbance feed-forward compensation is designed, which guarantees that the tracking errors converge to zero in finite time. Second, if the linear velocity as well as the angular velocity of mobile robot is unmeasurable, with a stronger constraint, the finite-time trajectory tracking control of nonholonomic mobile robot is also addressed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control laws is demonstrated by simulation.     

Necessary and sufficient conditions of stationary average consensus for second-order multi-agent systems

This paper investigates the stationary average consensus problem for second-order discrete-time multi-agent systems (SDMAS). A stationary consensus problem is to find a control algorithm that brings the state of a group of agents to a common constant value which is called the collective decision. We introduce the concept of stationary average consensus of SDMAS and propose a consensus algorithm. Based on the polynomial stability and the graph theory, we obtain two necessary and sufficient conditions of stationary average consensus of SDMAS. The last theorem provides an algebraic criterion of stationary average consensus, and can help us to determine the parameters in the consensus algorithm. Furthermore, in this consensus algorithm, only the states of the agents are transferred among the agents. Therefore, this algorithm can not only solve the stationary average consensus problem but also reduce the amount of transferred data. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the efficiency of our 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.     

Finite-time distributed consensus via binary control protocols

This paper investigates the finite-time distributed consensus problem for multi-agent systems using a binary consensus protocol and the pinning control scheme. Compared with other consensus algorithms which need the complete state or output information of neighbors, the proposed algorithm only requires sign information of the relative state measurements, that is, the differences between a node’s state and that of its neighbors. This corresponds to only requiring a single-bit quantization error relative to each neighbor. This signum protocol is realistic in terms of observed behavior in animal groups, where relative motion is determined not by full time-signal measurements, but by coarse estimates of relative heading differences between neighbors. The signum protocol does not require explicit measurement of time signals from neighbors, and hence has the potential to significantly reduce the requirements for both computation and sensing. Analysis of discontinuous dynamical systems is used, including the Filippov solutions and set-valued Lie derivative. Based on the second-order information on the evolution of Lyapunov functions, the conditions that guarantee the finite-time consensus for the systems are identified. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Robust consensus tracking of a class of second-order multi-agent dynamic systems

In this paper, we study the problem of robust consensus tracking for a class of second-order multi-agent dynamic systems with disturbances and unmodeled agent dynamics. Contrary to previous approaches, we design continuous distributed consensus protocols to enable global asymptotic consensus tracking. Our focus is on consensus protocol design and stability analysis which also leads to the derivation of sufficient conditions for consensus tracking. We first consider the case of undirected information exchange with a symmetric and positive definite information-exchange matrix. We develop an identifier for each agent to estimate the unknown disturbances and unmodeled agent dynamics. Based on the identifier, we develop a consensus tracking protocol to enable global asymptotic consensus tracking using local information obtained from neighboring agents. The closed-loop stability is proven using Lyapunov analysis theory and an invariance-like theorem. We then extend the approach to the case of directed information exchange, whose information-exchange matrix is only of full rank so that the approach for undirected graphs cannot be directly applied. We show that global asymptotic consensus tracking can still be enabled under the new derived sufficient conditions by designing a new identifier, which utilizes the estimated information exchanged from neighboring agents, and constructing a new Lyapunov function. Examples and numerical simulations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed robust consensus tracking method.     

On finite-time and fixed-time consensus algorithms for dynamic networks switching among disconnected digraphs

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to analyse the stability of a class of consensus algorithms with finite-time or fixed-time convergence for dynamic networks composed of agents with first-order dynamics. In particular, in the analysed class a single evaluation of a nonlinear function of the consensus error is performed per each node. The classical assumption of switching among connected graphs is dropped here, allowing to represent failures and intermittency in the communications between agents. Thus, conditions to guarantee finite and fixed-time convergence, even while switching among disconnected graphs, are provided. Moreover, the algorithms of the considered class are computationally simpler than previously proposed finite-time consensus algorithms for dynamic networks, which is an essential feature in scenarios with computationally limited nodes and energy efficiency requirements such as in sensor networks. Simulations illustrate the performance of the proposed consensus algorithms. In the presented scenarios, results show that the settling time of the considered algorithms grows slower than other consensus algorithms for dynamic networks as the number of nodes increases.     

基于观测器的多智能体系统的有限时间包含控制

在固定有向拓扑结构下,研究了具有多个静态或动态领导者的多智能体有限时间包含控制问题;假设领导者之间不存在信息的交互,提出基于快速终端滑模的控制算法,该算法驱使跟随者的运动轨迹在有限时间收敛到由领导者组成的凸包中;进一步,考虑实际应用中跟随者状态不能在线获得的情况,提出基于有限时间观测器的包含控制协议;利用图论和Lyapunov有限时间稳定性理论,给出了有限时间包含控制的充分条件;最后通过仿真示例,验证了算法的有效性。     

异构多智能体系统有限时间一致性分析

研究二阶智能体速度不可测情况下由一阶和二阶智能体构成的异构多智能体系统有限时间一致性问题。在固定拓扑结构下,给出了异构系统实现一致性的控制协议,通过LaSalle不变集原理和齐次控制方法得到了异构系统有限时间一致性的充分条件;在切换拓扑结构下,给出了异构系统一致性的控制协议,得到了异构系统有限时间一致性的充分条件。仿真结果验证了相关结果的有效性。     

二阶多智能体系统参数自适应的有限时间一致性算法

目前二阶多智能体系统尚未明确给出自适应参数的确定方法,且系统的收敛速度较慢.为在实际应用中预测飞行器多智能体系统下一时刻的状态并提高收敛速度,提出一种参数自适应的一致性算法.将当前智能体间位置和速度的差值作为一致性协议的反馈参数,研究固定拓扑和切换拓扑情形下二阶多智能体系统的有限时间一致性问题,构造Lyapunov函数...