696 research outputs found
Consensus with Linear Objective Maps
A consensus system is a linear multi-agent system in which agents communicate
to reach a so-called consensus state, defined as the average of the initial
states of the agents. Consider a more generalized situation in which each agent
is given a positive weight and the consensus state is defined as the weighted
average of the initial conditions. We characterize in this paper the weighted
averages that can be evaluated in a decentralized way by agents communicating
over a directed graph. Specifically, we introduce a linear function, called the
objective map, that defines the desired final state as a function of the
initial states of the agents. We then provide a complete answer to the question
of whether there is a decentralized consensus dynamics over a given digraph
which converges to the final state specified by an objective map. In
particular, we characterize not only the set of objective maps that are
feasible for a given digraph, but also the consensus dynamics that implements
the objective map. In addition, we present a decentralized algorithm to design
the consensus dynamics
An Overview of Transience Bounds in Max-Plus Algebra
We survey and discuss upper bounds on the length of the transient phase of
max-plus linear systems and sequences of max-plus matrix powers. In particular,
we explain how to extend a result by Nachtigall to yield a new approach for
proving such bounds and we state an asymptotic tightness result by using an
example given by Hartmann and Arguelles.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
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
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