Output consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems with unknown control directions

In this paper, we consider an output consensus problem for a general class of nonlinear multi-agent systems without a prior knowledge of the agents' control directions. Two distributed Nussbaumtype control laws are proposed to solve the leaderless and leader-following adaptive consensus for heterogeneous multiple agents. Examples and simulations are given to verify their effectivenessComment: 10 pages;2 figure

Second-Order Consensus of Networked Mechanical Systems With Communication Delays

In this paper, we consider the second-order consensus problem for networked mechanical systems subjected to nonuniform communication delays, and the mechanical systems are assumed to interact on a general directed topology. We propose an adaptive controller plus a distributed velocity observer to realize the objective of second-order consensus. It is shown that both the positions and velocities of the mechanical agents synchronize, and furthermore, the velocities of the mechanical agents converge to the scaled weighted average value of their initial ones. We further demonstrate that the proposed second-order consensus scheme can be used to solve the leader-follower synchronization problem with a constant-velocity leader and under constant communication delays. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed adaptive controllers.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Contro

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