Hybrid consensus for multi-agent systems with time-driven jumps

In this paper, the behavior of scalar multi-agent systems over networks subject to time-driven jumps. Assuming that all agents communicate through distinct communication digraphs at jump and flow times, the asymptotic multi-consensus behavior of the hybrid network is explicitly characterized. The hybrid multi-consensus is shown to be associated with a suitable partition that is almost equitable for both the jump and flow communication digraphs. In doing so, no assumption on the underlying digraphs is introduced. Finally, the coupling rules making the multi-consensus subspace attractive are established. Several simulation examples illustrate the theoretical results.     

Stability analysis of flocking for multi-agent dynamic systems

This paper is focused on the stability analysis of flocking for multi-agent dynamic systems under weakened assumptions on the connectivity of graphs. Sufficient conditions guaranteeing the emergence of collective behavior of a group of dynamic agents are established. We also consider the case when there is a leader among group of agents.     

Variable impulsive consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems

In this paper, the consensus problem for nonlinear multi-agent systems with variable impulsive control method is studied. In order to decrease the communication wastage, a novel distributed impulsive protocol is designed to achieve consensus. Compared with the common impulsive consensus method with fixed impulsive instants, the variable impulsive consensus method proposed in this paper is more flexible and reliable in practical application. Based on Lyapunov stability theory and some inequality techniques, several novel impulsive consensus conditions are obtained to realize the consensus of multi-agent systems. Finally, some necessary simulations are performed to validate the effectiveness of theoretical results.     

Distributed adaptive switching consensus control of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with switched leader dynamics

In this paper, the leader-following distributed consensus control problem is addressed for general linear multi-agent systems with heterogeneous uncertain agent dynamics and switched leader dynamics. Different from most existing results with a single linear time-invariant (LTI) leader dynamics, the leader dynamics under consideration is composed by a family of LTI models and a switching logic governing the switches among them, which is capable of generating more diverse and sophisticated reference signals to accommodate more complicated consensus control design tasks. A novel distributed adaptive switching consensus protocol is developed by incorporating the model reference adaptive control mechanism and arbitrary switching control technique, which can be synthesized by following a two-layer hierarchical design scheme. A numerical example has been used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Impulsive consensus problem of second-order multi-agent systems with switching topologies

The paper proposes an impulsive consensus protocol to solve the consensus problem of the second-order multi-agent systems with fixed and switching topologies. Some sufficient conditions are obtained for the states of follower agents converging to the state of leader asymptotically. Two numerical simulations are also given to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis.     

Sampled-data-based consensus of multi-agent systems under asynchronous denial-of-service attacks

This paper investigates the sampled-data-based consensus problem of multi-agent systems (MASs) under asynchronous denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. In order to describe asynchronous DoS attacks, a new definition of complete DoS attack and novel double-layer switched systems are proposed. A complete DoS attack refers to a DoS attack that consists of several consecutive successful DoS attacks. While a successful DoS attack denotes an attack that can break the connected communication topology into several isolated subgraphs. Based on this, the original system is transformed into a double-layer switched systems with a stable mode and several unstable modes. It should be pointed out that each unstable subsystem is also composed of finite second-level unstable subsystems that represent consecutive successful DoS attacks. Moreover, a new double-mode-dependent Lyapunov function (DMDLF) method is employed to obtain the lower and upper bounds of the corresponding average dwell time (ADT) of subsystems. It is proved that the consensus of MASs under asynchronous DoS attacks can be achieved by using the feedback consensus controllers which can be designed simultaneously. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the results proposed in this paper.     

Leader-following exponential consensus of general linear multi-agent systems via event-triggered control with combinational measurements

In this paper, the leader-following exponential consensus problem of general linear multi-agent systems via event-triggered control is considered. By using the combinational measurements, two classes of event triggers are designed, one depends on continuous communications between the agents, the other avoids continuous communications. For such two classes of event triggers, the exponential consensus as well as the convergence rates of the controlled multi-agent systems are studied, respectively, by employing the M-matrix theory, algebraic graph theory and the Lyapunov method.     

A new class of fixed-time bipartite flocking protocols for multi-agent systems

This work is concerned with the fixed-time stability theorem and the fixed-time bipartite flocking with collision avoidance for multi-agent systems. Under the framework of Filippov solution, a new theorem of fixed-time stability is established and a high-precision estimation of settling time is given. As an important application, the fixed-time bipartite flocking protocol of nonlinear multi-agent systems is proposed. Employing this fixed-time stability theorem and the structurally balanced signed graph theorem, the bipartite flocking without collision is achieved within a fixed-time. Moreover, the convergent time of the bipartite flocking is merely depending on the parameters of the protocol and the network connectivity. In addition, the upper bound of the size for each disjoint cluster can be estimated by the parameters of the protocol, the network connectivity and the initial states of the system. These results are novel, which are illustrated by both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.     

Randomly changing leader-following consensus control for Markovian switching multi-agent systems with interval time-varying delays

This paper considers the problem of leader-following consensus stability and also stabilization for multi-agent systems with interval time-varying delays. The randomly occurring interconnection information of the leader and the Markovian switching interconnection information of the agent are matters of concern in the systems. Through construction of a suitable Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and utilization of the reciprocally convex approach, new delay-dependent consensus stability and stabilization conditions for the systems are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) which can be easily solved by using various effective optimization algorithms. Two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Distributed impulsive control consensus for a class of unknown nonlinear multi-agent systems based on event-triggered scheme

In this study, we are concerned with the impulsive consensus control problem for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) which have unknown dynamics and directed communication topology. The neural networks (NNs) method is the first utilized to construct distributed event-triggered impulsive consensus protocol. In contrast to the existing impulsive consensus protocol, the consensus protocol proposed in this paper does not need the dynamics of agents, which enhances the system robustness, and realizes distributed event-triggered communication between agents, which can reduce unnecessary consumption of communication resources. Sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the consensus of the controlled MASs and the exclusion of Zeno-behavior. Finally, simulation examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.     

Second-order cluster consensus of multi-agent dynamical systems with impulsive effects

This paper discuss the cluster consensus of multi-agent dynamical systems (MADSs) with impulsive effects and coupling delays. Some sufficient conditions that guarantee cluster consensus in MADS are derived. In each cluster, agents update their position and velocity states according to a leader’s instantaneous information, and interactions among agents are uncertain. Furthermore, switching topology problem in MADS is considered by impulsive stability and adaptive strategy. Finally, numerical simulations are given to verify our theoretical analysis.     

Impulsive consensus of one-sided Lipschitz nonlinear multi-agent systems with Semi-Markov switching topologies

Many real systems involve not only parameter changes but also sudden variations in environmental conditions, which often causes unpredictable topologies switching. This paper investigates the impulsive consensus problem of the one-sided Lipschitz nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with Semi-Markov switching topologies. Different from the existing modeling methods of the Markov chain, the Semi-Markov chain is adopted to describe this kind of randomly occurring changes reasonably. To cope with the communication and control cost constraints in the multi-agent systems, the distributed impulsive control method is applied to address the leader–follower consensus problem. Beyond that, to obtain a wider nonlinear application range, the one-sided condition is delicately developed to the controller design, and the results are different from the ones obtained in the traditional method with the Lipschitz condition (note that the existing results are usually only applicable to the case with small Lipschitz constant). Based on the characteristics of cumulative distribution functions, the theory of Lyapunov-like function and impulsive differential equation, the asymptotically mean square consensus of multi-agent systems is maintained with the proposed impulsive control protocol. Finally, an explanatory simulation is presented to validate the correctness of the proposed approach conclusively.     

Asymptotic pinning synchronization of nonlinear multi-agent systems: Its application to tunnel diode circuit

This work proposes a pinning state-feedback control technique for synchronizing non-linear multi-agent systems (MASs) with time delays. A collection of switching-directed graphs describes the communication exchanges between all of the agents. The challenge of asymptotic stability analysis for some error systems is translated into the construction of a leader-following synchronization of the relevant MASs. The closed-loop system could be acquired by building a convenient Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) that has two integral terms, and by using Kronecker product qualities combined with matrix inequality techniques. When these conditions are met, a state-feedback pinning controller can be built with linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which can be derived easily from a number of efficient optimization algorithms. Further, the performance of the proposed control design system is verified based on a tunnel diode circuit (TDC) by numerical simulations.     

关于k-消去二分图的一些结果

图 G的一个 k-正则支撑子图称为 G的 k-因子 ,若对 G的任一边 e,图 G- e总存在一个 k-因子 ,则称 G是 k-消去图 .证明了二分图 G=( X,Y) ,且 | X | =| Y|是 k-消去图的充分必要条件是 k| S|≤ r1 + 2 r2 +…+ k( rk+… + rΔ) - ε( S)对所有 S X成立 .并由此给出二分图是 k-消去图的充分度条件 .     

Formation control for second-order multi-agent systems with time-varying delays under directed topology

In this paper, we investigate a formation control problem for second-order multi-agent systems with directed graph interconnection topologies that contain time-varying coupling delays. By using a special multiple leaders’ framework, sufficient conditions are obtained for both time-invariant and time-varying formations as well as for time-varying formations for trajectory tracking, which guarantees the attainment of the formations is at exponentially converging speeds. Some numerical simulations are also conducted to validate the theoretical results.     

A multi-agent inventory problem with general transportation costs

This paper addresses the cost allocation problem that arises from an inventory system with multiple item and several agents that place joint orders according to an EOQ policy. In this setting, the cost per a new order has two components: a fixed cost and a variable cost. We assume that the variable part is given by a general function, not necessarily additive. We obtain the optimal policy and we evaluate some proposals of allocation rule for the ordering costs.     

Limitations of learning in automata-based systems

In this article, we aim to analyze the limitations of learning in automata-based systems by introducing the L⁺$L^{+}$ algorithm to replicate quasi-perfect learning, i.e., a situation in which the learner can get the correct answer to any of his queries. This extreme assumption allows the generalization of any limitations of the learning algorithm to less sophisticated learning systems. We analyze the conditions under which the L⁺$L^{+}$ infers the correct automaton and when it fails to do so. In the context of the repeated prisoners’ dilemma, we exemplify how the L⁺$L^{+}$ may fail to learn the correct automaton. We prove that a sufficient condition for the L⁺$L^{+}$ algorithm to learn the correct automaton is to use a large number of look-ahead steps. Finally, we show empirically, in the product differentiation problem, that the computational time of the L⁺$L^{+}$ algorithm is polynomial on the number of states but exponential on the number of agents.     

Sampled-data distributed protocol for coordinated aggregation of multi-agent systems subject to communication delays

This paper studies the coordinated aggregation problem of a multi-agent system. Particularly, all the agents reach a consensus within a pre-specified target region. However, only a subset of agents have access to this target region, and each agent merely interacts with its neighbors by communication. Moreover, there exist unknown heterogeneous delays in communication channels. The underlying communication topology is characterized by a digraph. To accommodate the practical digital disposal, a sampled-data distributed protocol is proposed, where the sampling is asynchronous in the sense that the sampling periods of distinct agents are heterogeneous. The resulting closed-loop system from the proposed sampled-data distributed protocol is in a hybrid fashion that the continuous system is fed-back by using discrete states at sampling instants. The convergence performance of this hybrid closed-loop system is analyzed based on the contraction theory. More specifically, it is first shown that all the states are coordinated to aggregate within the target region, i.e., coordinated aggregation. With this result, it is next shown that all the states are coordinated towards a consensus, i.e., state agreement. These together guarantee the fulfillment of the concerned coordinated aggregation objective. Finally, a simulation example is given to validate the theoretical results.     

Consensus seeking in multi-agent systems via hybrid protocols with impulse delays

This paper studies the consensus problem of multi-agent systems with both fixed and switching topologies. A hybrid consensus protocol is proposed to take into consideration of continuous-time communications among agents and delayed instant information exchanges on a sequence of discrete times. Based on the proposed algorithms, the multi-agent systems with the hybrid consensus protocols are described in the form of impulsive systems or impulsive switching systems. By employing results from matrix theory and algebraic graph theory, some sufficient conditions for the consensus of multi-agent systems with fixed and switching topologies are established, respectively. Our results show that, for small impulse delays, the hybrid consensus protocols can solve the consensus problem if the union of continuous-time and impulsive-time interaction digraphs contains a spanning tree frequently enough. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed consensus protocols.