Passivity based state synchronization of multi-agent systems via static or adaptive nonlinear dynamic protocols

This paper studies state synchronization of homogeneous multi-agent systems (MAS) with partial-state coupling (i.e., agents are coupled through part of states). We identify three classes of agents, for which static linear protocols can be designed. They are agent which are squared-down passive, squared-down passifiable via output feedback, or G-minimum-phase with relative degree 1. We find that, for squared-down passive agents, the static protocol does not need any network information, as long as the network graph contains a directed spanning tree, while for the other two classes of agents, the static protocol needs rough information on the network graph, in particular, a lower bound of the non-zero eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix associated with the network graph. However, when adaptive nonlinear dynamic protocols are utilized, even this rough information about the network is no longer needed for the other two classes of agents

Time-and event-driven communication process for networked control systems: A survey

Copyright © 2014 Lei Zou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In recent years, theoretical and practical research topics on networked control systems (NCSs) have gained an increasing interest from many researchers in a variety of disciplines owing to the extensive applications of NCSs in practice. In particular, an urgent need has arisen to understand the effects of communication processes on system performances. Sampling and protocol are two fundamental aspects of a communication process which have attracted a great deal of research attention. Most research focus has been on the analysis and control of dynamical behaviors under certain sampling procedures and communication protocols. In this paper, we aim to survey some recent advances on the analysis and synthesis issues of NCSs with different sampling procedures (time-and event-driven sampling) and protocols (static and dynamic protocols). First, these sampling procedures and protocols are introduced in detail according to their engineering backgrounds as well as dynamic natures. Then, the developments of the stabilization, control, and filtering problems are systematically reviewed and discussed in great detail. Finally, we conclude the paper by outlining future research challenges for analysis and synthesis problems of NCSs with different communication processes.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61329301, 61374127, and 61374010, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

Designing Fully Distributed Consensus Protocols for Linear Multi-agent Systems with Directed Graphs

This paper addresses the distributed consensus protocol design problem for multi-agent systems with general linear dynamics and directed communication graphs. Existing works usually design consensus protocols using the smallest real part of the nonzero eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix associated with the communication graph, which however is global information. In this paper, based on only the agent dynamics and the relative states of neighboring agents, a distributed adaptive consensus protocol is designed to achieve leader-follower consensus for any communication graph containing a directed spanning tree with the leader as the root node. The proposed adaptive protocol is independent of any global information of the communication graph and thereby is fully distributed. Extensions to the case with multiple leaders are further studied.Comment: 16 page, 3 figures. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Contro

Distributed Consensus of Linear Multi-Agent Systems with Adaptive Dynamic Protocols

This paper considers the distributed consensus problem of multi-agent systems with general continuous-time linear dynamics. Two distributed adaptive dynamic consensus protocols are proposed, based on the relative output information of neighboring agents. One protocol assigns an adaptive coupling weight to each edge in the communication graph while the other uses an adaptive coupling weight for each node. These two adaptive protocols are designed to ensure that consensus is reached in a fully distributed fashion for any undirected connected communication graphs without using any global information. A sufficient condition for the existence of these adaptive protocols is that each agent is stabilizable and detectable. The cases with leader-follower and switching communication graphs are also studied.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figue

Distributed Robust Consensus Control of Multi-agent Systems with Heterogeneous Matching Uncertainties

This paper considers the distributed consensus problem of linear multi-agent systems subject to different matching uncertainties for both the cases without and with a leader of bounded unknown control input. Due to the existence of nonidentical uncertainties, the multi-agent systems discussed in this paper are essentially heterogeneous. For the case where the communication graph is undirected and connected, a distributed continuous static consensus protocol based on the relative state information is first designed, under which the consensus error is uniformly ultimately bounded and exponentially converges to a small adjustable residual set. A fully distributed adaptive consensus protocol is then designed, which, contrary to the static protocol, relies on neither the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix nor the upper bounds of the uncertainties. For the case where there exists a leader whose control input is unknown and bounded, distributed static and adaptive consensus protocols are proposed to ensure the boundedness of the consensus error. It is also shown that the proposed protocols can be redesigned so as to ensure the boundedness of the consensus error in the presence of bounded external disturbances which do not satisfy the matching condition. A sufficient condition for the existence of the proposed protocols is that each agent is stabilizable.Comment: 16 page, 10 figures. This manuscript is an extended version of our paper accepted for publication by Automatic