Optimal Network Topology of Multi-Agent Systems subject to Computation and Communication Latency (with proofs)

We study minimum-variance feedback-control design for a networked control system with retarded dynamics, where inter-agent communication is subject to latency. We prove that such a design can be solved efficiently for circular formations and compute near-optimal control gains in closed form. We show that the centralized control architecture is in general suboptimal when the communication increase with the number of links, and propose a control-driven optimization of the network topology.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Cooperative output feedback tracking control of stochastic linear heterogeneous multi-agent systems

We study cooperative output feedback tracking control of stochastic linear heterogeneous leader-following multi-agent systems. Each agent has a continuous-time linear heterogeneous dynamics with incompletely measurable state, and there are additive and multiplicative noises along with information exchange among agents. We propose a set of admissible distributed observation strategies for estimating the leader's and the followers' states, and a set of admissible cooperative output feedback control strategies based on the certainty equivalence principle. By output regulation theory and stochastic analysis, we show that for observable leader's dynamics and stabilizable and detectable followers' dynamics, if the intensity coefficient of multiplicative noises multiplied by the sum of real parts of the leader' s unstable modes is less than 1/4 of the minimum non-zero eigenvalue of graph Laplacian, then there exist admissible distributed observation and cooperative control strategies to ensure mean square bounded output tracking, provided the associated output regulation equations are solvable. Finally, the effectiveness of our control strategies is demonstrated by a numerical simulation