Distributed Consensus of Linear Multi-Agent Systems with Switching Directed Topologies

This paper addresses the distributed consensus problem for a linear multi-agent system with switching directed communication topologies. By appropriately introducing a linear transformation, the consensus problem is equivalently converted to a stabilization problem for a class of switched linear systems. Some sufficient consensus conditions are then derived by using tools from the matrix theory and stability analysis of switched systems. It is proved that consensus in such a multi-agent system can be ensured if each agent is stabilizable and each possible directed topology contains a directed spanning tree. Finally, a numerical simulation is given for illustration.Comment: The paper will be presented at the 2014 Australian Control Conference (AUCC 2014), Canberra, Australi

Formation Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Directed and Switching Topologies

Formation control problems for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm systems with directed and switching topologies are investigated. A general formation control protocol is proposed firstly. Then, by variable transformation, the formation problem is transformed into a consensus problem, which can be solved by a novel matrix decomposition method. Sufficient conditions to achieve formation with directed and switching topologies are provided and an explicit expression of the formation reference function is given. Furthermore, an algorithm to design the gain matrices of the protocol is presented. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results