Distributed Average Consensus under Quantized Communication via Event-Triggered Mass Summation

We study distributed average consensus problems in multi-agent systems with directed communication links that are subject to quantized information flow. The goal of distributed average consensus is for the nodes, each associated with some initial value, to obtain the average (or some value close to the average) of these initial values. In this paper, we present and analyze a distributed averaging algorithm which operates exclusively with quantized values (specifically, the information stored, processed and exchanged between neighboring agents is subject to deterministic uniform quantization) and relies on event-driven updates (e.g., to reduce energy consumption, communication bandwidth, network congestion, and/or processor usage). We characterize the properties of the proposed distributed averaging protocol on quantized values and show that its execution, on any time-invariant and strongly connected digraph, will allow all agents to reach, in finite time, a common consensus value represented as the ratio of two integer that is equal to the exact average. We conclude with examples that illustrate the operation, performance, and potential advantages of the proposed algorithm

Education and training needs, methods, and tools

The importance of education and training in the domain of power and energy systems targeting the topics of cyber-physical energy systems/smart grids is discussed in this chapter. State-of-the art laboratory-based and simulation-based tools are presented, aiming to address the new educational needs

Privacy-Preserving Event-Triggered Quantized Average Consensus

In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving event-triggered quantized average consensus algorithm that allows agents to calculate the average of their initial values without revealing to other agents their specific value. We assume that agents (nodes) interact with other agents via directed communication links (edges), forming a directed communication topology (digraph). The proposed distributed algorithm can be followed by any agent wishing to maintain its privacy (i.e., not reveal the initial value it contributes to the average) to other, possibly multiple, curious but not malicious agents. Curious agents try to identify the initial values of other agents, but do not interfere in the computation in any other way. We develop a distributed strategy that allows agents while processing and transmitting quantized information, to preserve the privacy of their initial quantized values and at the same time to obtain, after a finite number of steps, the exact average of the initial values of the nodes. Illustrative examples demonstrate the validity and performance of our proposed algorithm.Peer reviewe