Analysis of containment control for multi-agent systems based on broadcast gossip algorithm

This paper investigates the distributed containment control problem for multi-agent systems with general linear dynamics under a directed graph. A new observer based on the relative outputs of neighboring agents is developed to estimate the relative states of neighbors which avoid designing the observer for the leaders in the existing literature. A matrix transformation is introduced to eliminate the coupling terms resulting from the simultaneous design of the observer and the controller gains. Then a sufficient condition on the existence of the observer-based controllers is presented in terms of strict linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

Observer-based distributed adaptive fault-tolerant containment control of multi-agent systems with general linear dynamics

In this article, the containment control problem of multiagent systems (MASs) with active leaders under a directed communication graph is addressed. A novel pull-based event-triggered protocol combined with aperiodic sampled-data mechanism is first presented, where each agent merely updates controller at its own triggering instants. Under the proposed control protocols, the information is only exchanged and calculated at the aperiodic sampling instants, therefore, it can reduce communication congestion and save computing resources. Furthermore, the Zeno behavior is naturally excluded because the trigger instants are in the set of aperiodic sampled instants. By virtue of the algebraic graph theory and Lyapunov stability analysis, it is shown that the active leaders can reach their desired states predefined arbitrarily and all followers are driven to the convex hull formed by the leaders. Finally, an illustrative example is given to validate the theoretical results and emphasize the advantages of the proposed protocols.

This paper investigates the containment control problem of multi-agent systems with semi-Markovian switching topologies. Different from the related works, this paper considers a more general case that the control inputs of leaders are nonzero, the sojourn time distributions of the semi-Markovian switching topologies are mode transition-dependent, and the states of agents are not measurable. Reduced-order observer-based control protocols are proposed, respectively, for two cases that the transition rates are completely known and partially unknown, which ensures that the containment of the multi-agent systems can be achieved in the mean square sense. Finally, simulation examples are given to illustrate the validity of the theoretical results.

In this paper, the bipartite containment control problem of multi-agent systems (MASs) with unknown disturbances is studied. At first, a signed undirected graph is used to describe the Cooperative-Antagonistic interaction among the agents. Different from some conventional results of convergence in the infinite time domain, the control protocol proposed in this paper achieves the fixed-time convergence, and applies the fixed-time control and bipartite consensus to the containment control, making the proposed control protocol more practical. In addition, this paper also considers the existence of external disturbances and a novel fixed-time bipartite containment control protocol is proposed to eliminate them. Then, the stability analysis under the control protocol is completed by using the Lyapunov theory and mathematical theorem. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is verified by some simulation examples.

This paper investigates the event-based prescribed performance fuzzy adaptive containment control problem for multi-agent systems with unknown control direction and sensor faults. In the proposed control strategy, the tracking error can converge to the prescribed boundary by designing a performance function. An adaptive faults compensation scheme is introduced to handle sensor faults. In addition, the technology of Nussbaum-type function is employed to cope with the difficulty of unknown control gains. Moreover, by utilizing the Lyapunov stability theory, it is proven that the developed control method can ensure all the signals of closed-loop system are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed strategy is verified by some simulation results.KeywordsMulti-agent systemsEvent-triggered containment controlPrescribed performance controlUnknown control directionSensor faults

Formation control for nonlinear multi-agent systems by robust output regulation

Bipartite time-varying formation group containment control for multi-agent systems based on multi-layer network and semi-signed directed graph

Formation-containment control for second-order multi-agent systems with time-varying delays

This article investigates the iterative learning control problem for a class of nonlinear heterogeneous multi-agent systems. The main contribution of this article is to apply iterative learning control algorithm to the multi-agent systems with multiple leaders, and solve the containment control problem of multi-agent systems in the sense of iterative learning control stability. Based on the framework of communication topologies, distributed iterative learning controllers are designed. And when the iterative learning control laws are applied to the systems, the containment errors between the followers’ states and the convex hull spanned by the leaders’ states over a finite-time interval are bounded, and furthermore, the containment errors can converge to zero as the iteration index approaches to infinity in the absence of initial errors. A simulation example is finally constructed to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical method.

This study applies a design method called linear quadratic regulator to tackle the containment control problem of discrete-time linear multi-agent systems over directed graphs. By solving an algebraic Riccati equation, the study establishes both necessary and sufficient conditions required to achieve consensus. The researchers introduce an innovative distributed control law for information transmission between leaders and followers. This control law allows the following agents to move within the convex hull formed by the navigation agent, and effectively enables them to converge quickly and then follow again by introducing position error adjustment parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is demonstrated through a simulation example.

We investigate the fixed-time containment control (FCC) problem of multi-agent systems (MASs) under discontinuous communication. A saturation function is used in the controller to achieve the containment control in MASs. One difference from using a symbolic function is that it avoids the differential calculation process for discontinuous functions, which further ensures the continuity of the control input. Considering the discontinuous communication, a dynamic variable is constructed, which is always non-negative between any two communications of the agent. Based on the designed variable, the dynamic event-triggered algorithm is proposed to achieve FCC, which can effectively reduce controller updating. In addition, we further design a new event-triggered algorithm to achieve FCC, called the team-trigger mechanism, which combines the self-triggering technique with the proposed dynamic event trigger mechanism. It has faster convergence than the proposed dynamic event triggering technique and achieves the tradeoff between communication cost, convergence time and number of triggers in MASs. Finally, Zeno behavior is excluded and the validity of the proposed theory is confirmed by simulation.

This article studies the bipartite containment control problem for nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) with input quantization over a signed digraph. The design objective is to provide an appropriate distributed protocol such that the followers converge to a convex hull containing each leader's trajectory as well as its opposite trajectory different in sign. Based on a nonlinear decomposition approach of input quantization, an event-triggered control scheme is developed via backstepping technique. A fuzzy observer is constructed to estimate unmeasurable states. Moreover, the bipartite containment control scheme for nonlinear MASs is designed. It is demonstrated that all signals in the closed-loop system are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded and Zeno behavior is excluded. Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the validity of the designed method.

ABSTRACTThe event-based broadcasting containment control problem for both first-order and second-order multi-agent systems under directed topology is investigated. Based on certain event, each agent decides when to transmit its current states to its neighbours and the agents’ distributed control algorithms are based on these sampled state measurements, which can significantly decrease the number of the controllers’ updates. All the agents are divided into two groups, namely, the leaders and the followers. The formation control is introduced. The leaders exchange their information to converge to a formation. The followers utilise the information from both their leader neighbours and their follower neighbours and are driven to the convex hull of the leaders using the proposed control algorithms. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.

This paper studies the containment control problem of linear multi-agent systems (MASs) subject to external disturbances, where the communication graph is a directed graph with the followers being undirected connections. In order to save communication costs and energy consumption, a distributed disturbance observer-based event-triggered controller is employed based on the relative outputs of neighboring followers. Compared with conventional controllers, our observer-based controller utilizes the relative outputs of neighboring followers at the same triggered instant. Furthermore, it is shown that Zeno behavior can be avoided. Finally, the validity of our proposed methodology is demonstrated by a simulation example.