Distributed Fault-Tolerant Containment Control for Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems Under Directed Network Topology via Hierarchical Approach

This paper investigates the distributed fault-tolerant containment control(FTCC)problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems(MASs)under a directed network topology.The proposed control framework which is independent on the global information about the communication topology consists of two layers.Different from most existing distributed fault-tolerant control(FTC)protocols where the fault in one agent may propagate over network,the developed control method can eliminate the phenomenon of fault propagation.Based on the hierarchical control strategy,the FTCC problem with a directed graph can be simplified to the distributed containment control of the upper layer and the fault-tolerant tracking control of the lower layer.Finally,simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.

Distributed Containment Control of Networked Nonlinear Second-order Systems With Unknown Parameters

In this paper, we study the containment control problem for nonlinear second-order systems with unknown parameters and multiple stationary/dynamic leaders. The topologies that characterize the interaction among the leaders and the followers are directed graphs. Necessary and sufficient criteria which guarantee the control objectives are established for both stationary leaders(regulation case) and dynamic leaders(dynamic tracking case) based protocols. The final states of all the followers are exclusively determined by the initial values of the leaders and the topology structures. In the regulation case, all the followers converge into the convex hull spanned by the leaders,while in the dynamic tracking case, not only the positions of the followers converge into the convex hull but also the velocities of the followers converge into the velocity convex hull of the leaders.Finally, all the theoretical results are illustrated by numerical simulations.

Theory and Experiments on Enclosing Control of Multi-Agent Systems

This paper proposes a control strategy called enclosing control.This strategy can be described as follows:the followers design their control inputs based on the state information of neighbor agents and move to specified positions.The convex hull formed by these followers contains the leaders.We use the single-integrator model to describe the dynamics of the agents and proposes a continuous-time control protocol and a sampled-data based protocol for multi-agent systems with stationary leaders with fixed network topology.Then the state differential equations are analyzed to obtain the parameter requirements for the system to achieve convergence.Moreover,the conditions achieving enclosing control are established for both protocols.A special enclosing control with no leader located on the convex hull boundary under the protocols is studied,which can effectively prevent enclosing control failures caused by errors in the system.Moreover,several simulations are proposed to validate theoretical results and compare the differences between the three control protocols.Finally,experimental results on the multi-robot platform are provided to verify the feasibility of the protocol in the physical system.

Consensus for Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems with Directed Network Topologies

In this paper, the consensus problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems composed of first-order and second-order agents is investigated with directed network topologies. Based on a system transformation method, this consensus problem is turned into a consensus problem for homogeneous multi-agent systems. With certain assumption on the control parameters, firstly, necessary and sufficient condition for consensus is proposed with fixed topology. Secondly, sufficient condition is proposed for heterogeneous multi-agent systems to achieve consensus with switching topologies. Finally, simulation examples are presented to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.