1,350 research outputs found
Consensus problems in networks of agents with switching topology and time-delays
In this paper, we discuss consensus problems for networks of dynamic agents with fixed and switching topologies. We analyze three cases: 1) directed networks with fixed topology; 2) directed networks with switching topology; and 3) undirected networks with communication time-delays and fixed topology. We introduce two consensus protocols for networks with and without time-delays and provide a convergence analysis in all three cases. We establish a direct connection between the algebraic connectivity (or Fiedler eigenvalue) of the network and the performance (or negotiation speed) of a linear consensus protocol. This required the generalization of the notion of algebraic connectivity of undirected graphs to digraphs. It turns out that balanced digraphs play a key role in addressing average-consensus problems. We introduce disagreement functions for convergence analysis of consensus protocols. A disagreement function is a Lyapunov function for the disagreement network dynamics. We proposed a simple disagreement function that is a common Lyapunov function for the disagreement dynamics of a directed network with switching topology. A distinctive feature of this work is to address consensus problems for networks with directed information flow. We provide analytical tools that rely on algebraic graph theory, matrix theory, and control theory. Simulations are provided that demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results
Agreement Problems in Networks with Directed Graphs and Switching Topology
In this paper, we provide tools for convergence and performance analysis of an agreement protocol for a network of integrator agents with directed information flow. Moreover, we analyze algorithmic robustness of this consensus protocol for the case of a network with mobile nodes and switching topology. We establish a connection between the Fiedler eigenvalue of the graph Laplacian and the performance of this agreement protocol. We demostrate that a class of directed graphs, called balanced graphs, have a crucial role in solving average-consensus problems. Based on the properties of balanced graphs, a group disagreement function (i.e. Lyapunov function) is proposed for convergence analysis of this agreement protocol for networks with directed graphs. This group disagreement function is later used for convergence analysis for the agreement problem in networks with switching topology. We provide simulation results that are consistent with our theoretical results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed analytical tools
Average Consensus in the Presence of Delays and Dynamically Changing Directed Graph Topologies
Classical approaches for asymptotic convergence to the global average in a
distributed fashion typically assume timely and reliable exchange of
information between neighboring components of a given multi-component system.
These assumptions are not necessarily valid in practical settings due to
varying delays that might affect transmissions at different times, as well as
possible changes in the underlying interconnection topology (e.g., due to
component mobility). In this work, we propose protocols to overcome these
limitations. We first consider a fixed interconnection topology (captured by a
- possibly directed - graph) and propose a discrete-time protocol that can
reach asymptotic average consensus in a distributed fashion, despite the
presence of arbitrary (but bounded) delays in the communication links. The
protocol requires that each component has knowledge of the number of its
outgoing links (i.e., the number of components to which it sends information).
We subsequently extend the protocol to also handle changes in the underlying
interconnection topology and describe a variety of rather loose conditions
under which the modified protocol allows the components to reach asymptotic
average consensus. The proposed algorithms are illustrated via examples.Comment: 37 page
Asymptotic Consensus Without Self-Confidence
This paper studies asymptotic consensus in systems in which agents do not
necessarily have self-confidence, i.e., may disregard their own value during
execution of the update rule. We show that the prevalent hypothesis of
self-confidence in many convergence results can be replaced by the existence of
aperiodic cores. These are stable aperiodic subgraphs, which allow to virtually
store information about an agent's value distributedly in the network. Our
results are applicable to systems with message delays and memory loss.Comment: 13 page
Broadcast Gossip Algorithms for Consensus on Strongly Connected Digraphs
We study a general framework for broadcast gossip algorithms which use
companion variables to solve the average consensus problem. Each node maintains
an initial state and a companion variable. Iterative updates are performed
asynchronously whereby one random node broadcasts its current state and
companion variable and all other nodes receiving the broadcast update their
state and companion variable. We provide conditions under which this scheme is
guaranteed to converge to a consensus solution, where all nodes have the same
limiting values, on any strongly connected directed graph. Under stronger
conditions, which are reasonable when the underlying communication graph is
undirected, we guarantee that the consensus value is equal to the average, both
in expectation and in the mean-squared sense. Our analysis uses tools from
non-negative matrix theory and perturbation theory. The perturbation results
rely on a parameter being sufficiently small. We characterize the allowable
upper bound as well as the optimal setting for the perturbation parameter as a
function of the network topology, and this allows us to characterize the
worst-case rate of convergence. Simulations illustrate that, in comparison to
existing broadcast gossip algorithms, the approaches proposed in this paper
have the advantage that they simultaneously can be guaranteed to converge to
the average consensus and they converge in a small number of broadcasts.Comment: 30 pages, submitte
On Robustness Analysis of a Dynamic Average Consensus Algorithm to Communication Delay
This paper studies the robustness of a dynamic average consensus algorithm to
communication delay over strongly connected and weight-balanced (SCWB)
digraphs. Under delay-free communication, the algorithm of interest achieves a
practical asymptotic tracking of the dynamic average of the time-varying
agents' reference signals. For this algorithm, in both its continuous-time and
discrete-time implementations, we characterize the admissible communication
delay range and study the effect of the delay on the rate of convergence and
the tracking error bound. Our study also includes establishing a relationship
between the admissible delay bound and the maximum degree of the SCWB digraphs.
We also show that for delays in the admissible bound, for static signals the
algorithms achieve perfect tracking. Moreover, when the interaction topology is
a connected undirected graph, we show that the discrete-time implementation is
guaranteed to tolerate at least one step delay. Simulations demonstrate our
results
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