Memory-augmented adaptive flocking control for multi-agent systems subject to uncertain external disturbances

This paper presents a novel flocking algorithm based on a memory-enhanced disturbance observer.To compensate for external disturbances,a filtered regressor for the double integrator model subject to external disturbances is designed to extract the disturbance information.With the filtered regressor method,the algorithm has the advantage of eliminating the need for acceleration information,thus reducing the sensor requirements in applications.Using the information obtained from the filtered regressor,a batch of stored data is used to design an adaptive disturbance observer,ensuring that the estimated values of the parameters of the disturbance system equation and the initial value converge to their actual values.The result is that the flocking algorithm can compensate for external disturbances and drive agents to achieve the desired collective behavior,including virtual leader tracking,inter-distance keeping,and collision avoidance.Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the algorithm proposed in the present study.

Distributed Adaptive Output Consensus of Unknown Heterogeneous Non-Minimum Phase Multi-Agent Systems

This article addresses the leader-following output consensus problem of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems with unknown agent parameters under directed graphs.The dynamics of followers are allowed to be non-minimum phase with unknown arbitrary individual relative degrees.This is contrary to many existing works on distributed adaptive control schemes where agent dynamics are required to be minimum phase and often of the same relative degree.A distributed adaptive pole placement control scheme is developed,which consists of a distributed observer and an adaptive pole placement control law.It is shown that under the proposed distributed adaptive control scheme,all signals in the closed-loop system are bounded and the outputs of all the followers track the output of the leader asymptotically.The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by one practical example and one numerical example.

Adaptive Memory Event-Triggered Observer-Based Control for Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems Under DoS Attacks

This paper investigates the event-triggered security consensus problem for nonlinear multi-agent systems(MASs)under denial-of-service(Do S)attacks over an undirected graph.A novel adaptive memory observer-based anti-disturbance control scheme is presented to improve the observer accuracy by adding a buffer for the system output measurements.Meanwhile,this control scheme can also provide more reasonable control signals when Do S attacks occur.To save network resources,an adaptive memory event-triggered mechanism(AMETM)is also proposed and Zeno behavior is excluded.It is worth mentioning that the AMETM's updates do not require global information.Then,the observer and controller gains are obtained by using the linear matrix inequality(LMI)technique.Finally,simulation examples show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Adaptive Consensus Quantized Control for a Class of High-Order Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems With Input Hysteresis and Full State Constraints

For a class of high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with input hysteresis,an adaptive consensus output-feedback quantized control scheme with full state constraints is investigated.The major properties of the proposed control scheme are:1)According to the different hysteresis input characteristics of each agent in the multi-agent system,a hysteresis quantization inverse compensator is designed to eliminate the influence of hysteresis characteristics on the system while ensuring that the quantized signal maintains the desired value.2)A barrier Lyapunov function is introduced for the first time in the hysteretic multi-agent system.By constructing state constraint control strategy for the hysteretic multi-agent system,it ensures that all the states of the system are always maintained within a predetermined range.3)The designed adaptive consensus output-feedback quantization control scheme allows the hysteretic system to have unknown parameters and unknown disturbance,and ensures that the input signal transmitted between agents is the quantization value,and the introduced quantizer is implemented under the condition that only its sector bound property is required.The stability analysis has proved that all signals of the closed-loop are semi-globally uniformly bounded.The Star Sim hardware-in-the-loop simulation certificates the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive quantized control scheme.

Adaptive Containment Control for Fractional-Order Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems With Time-Varying Parameters

This paper investigates adaptive containment control for a class of fractional-order multi-agent systems(FOMASs)with time-varying parameters and disturbances.By using the bounded estimation method,the difficulty generated by the timevarying parameters and disturbances is overcome.The command filter is introduced to solve the complexity problem inherent in adaptive backstepping control.Meanwhile,in order to eliminate the effect of filter errors,a novel distributed error compensating scheme is constructed,in which only the local information from the neighbor agents is utilized.Then,a distributed adaptive containment control scheme for FOMASs is developed based on backstepping to guarantee that the outputs of all the followers are steered to the convex hull spanned by the leaders.Based on the extension of Barbalat's lemma to fractional-order integrals,it can be proven that the containment errors and the compensating signals have asymptotic convergence.Finally,three simulation examples are given to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Distributed Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Output Regulation of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems With Coupling Uncertainties and Actuator Faults

In this paper, we consider the distributed adaptive fault-tolerant output regulation problem for heterogeneous multiagent systems with matched system uncertainties and mismatched coupling uncertainties among subsystems under the influence of actuator faults. First, distributed finite-time observers are proposed for all subsystems to observe the state of the exosystem. Then, a novel fault-tolerant controller is designed to compensate for the influence of matched system uncertainties and actuator faults. By using the linear matrix inequality technique, a sufficient condition is provided to guarantee the solvability of the considered problem in the presence of mismatched coupling uncertainties. Moreover, it is shown that the system in closed-loop with the developed controller can achieve output regulation by using the Lyapunov stability theory and cyclic-small-gain theory.Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained result.

Distributed Adaptive Cooperative Tracking of Uncertain Nonlinear Fractional-order Multi-agent Systems

In this paper, the leader-following tracking problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems is addressed. The dynamics of each agent may be heterogeneous and has unknown nonlinearities. By assumptions that the interaction topology is undirected and connected and the unknown nonlinear uncertain dynamics can be parameterized by a neural network, an adaptive learning law is proposed to deal with unknown nonlinear dynamics, based on which a kind of cooperative tracking protocols are constructed. The feedback gain matrix is obtained to solve an algebraic Riccati equation. To construct the fully distributed cooperative tracking protocols, the adaptive law is also adopted to adjust the coupling weight. With the developed control laws,we can prove that all signals in the closed-loop systems are guaranteed to be uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, a simple simulation example is provided to illustrate the established result.

Observer-Based Intra-Cluster Lag Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems via Intermittent Adaptive Pinning Control

The intra-cluster lag consensus means that the agents in the same cluster can achieve lag consensus asymptotically while the agents in different clusters can achieve different consensus.In this paper,the authors investigate the observer-based intra-cluster lag consensus problems of multi-agent systems(MASs)with general linear dynamics and nonlinear dynamics via intermittent adaptive pinning control.The interaction network is considered to be weakly connected,i.e.,it is not necessary to be strongly connected,in-degree balanced or contain a directed spanning tree.To realise the intra-cluster lag consensus,a class of observers is designed to estimate the states of followers.Then a class of observer-based intermittent adaptive pinning control protocols is proposed according to the difference that the agents receive information source.Moreover,the pinning gains are designed to be intermittent adaptive and have an exponential convergence rate,which will effectively reduce communication costs,avoid the pinning gains being larger than those needed in real applications and guarantee the pinning gains quickly converge to steady value.Correspondingly,some sufficient consensus criteria are derived and rigorous proofs are given based on matrix theory and Lyapunov stability theory.Finally,the effectiveness for the proposed intermittent adaptive pinning control strategy is validated by a numerical simulation.

Adaptive leader-following rendezvous and flocking for a class of uncertain second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems

In this paper, we study the leader-following rendezvous and flocking problems for a class of second-order nonlinear multi- agent systems, which contain both external disturbances and plant uncertainties. What differs our problems from the conventional leader-following consensus problem is that we need to preserve the connectivity of the communication graph instead of assuming the connectivity of the communication graph. By integrating the adaptive control technique, the distributed observer method and the potential function method, the two problems are both solved. Finally, we apply our results to a group of van der Pol oscillators.

Distributed event-triggered adaptive control for second-order nonlinear uncertain multi-agent systems

In this paper,the event-triggered consensus control problem for nonlinear uncertain multi-agent systems subject to unknown parameters and external disturbances is considered.The dynamics of subsystems are second-order with similar structures,and the nodes are connected by undirected graphs.The event-triggered mechanisms are not only utilized in the transmission of information from the controllers to the actuators,and from the sensors to the controllers within each agent,but also in the communication between agents.Based on the adaptive backstepping method,extra estimators are introduced to handle the unknown parameters,and the measurement errors that occur during the event-triggered communication are well handled by designing compensating terms for the control signals.The presented distributed event-triggered adaptive control laws can guarantee the boundness of the consensus tracking errors and the Zeno behavior is avoided.Meanwhile,the update frequency of the controllers and the load of communication burden are vastly reduced.The obtained control protocol is further applied to a multi-input multi-output second-order nonlinear multi-agent system,and the simulation results show the effectiveness and advantages of our proposed method.

Adaptive neural control of nonlinear periodic time-varying parameterized mixed-order multi-agent systems with unknown control coefficients

In this paper, we first consider the adaptive leader-following consensus problem for a class of nonlinear parameterized mixedorder multi-agent systems with unknown control coefficients and time-varying disturbance parameters of the same period. Neural networks and Fourier series expansions are used to describe the unknown nonlinear periodic time-varying parameterized function.A distributed control protocol is designed based on adaptive control, matrix theory, and Nussbaum function. The robustness of the distributed control protocol is analyzed by combining the stability analysis theory of closed-loop systems. On this basis, this paper discusses the case of time-varying disturbance parameters with non-identical periods, expanding the application scope of this control protocol. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by a simulation example.

Recent advances in distributed adaptive consensus control of uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems

So far,distributed adaptive consensus problems for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems have not yet been extensively studied.Compared with centralised adaptive control,some new challenges need to be well addressed,for examples,(i)how to reach asymptotically consensus tracking with directed topology condition,by using totally distributed adaptive control strategies;(ii)how to ensure globally uniform boundedness of closed-loop systems while achieving leaderless consensus with semi-positive definite Laplacian matrix;(iii)how to maintain system performance while effectively reducing the communication burden among connected agents.This paper is mainly devoted to report some recent advances in distributed adaptive consensus control.Besides,some interesting research topics which are worthy of further investigation will also be discussed.

Adaptive sliding mode control of multi-agent relay tracking systems with disturbances

This paper studies the switching topologies and tracking agent replacements for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems with external disturbances.In particular,it is assumed that a number of monitoring agents are randomly deployed in a two-dimensional space.The agents are committed to tracking any intrusion targets in this area.When one of the following agents exits tracking for some reasons,the agent closer to the target joins the tracking team to ensure the number of tracking agents does not change.In order to achieve the successful tracking of the target,this paper designs a sliding mode controller for the relay multi-agent system with tracking agent replacements.Furthermore,an adaptive law is proposed to estimate the upper bound of disturbance in the relay tracking process.Next,the stability of the overall system will be analysed by applying the multiple Lyapunov function method based on the average dwell time.Finally,the effectiveness of the tracking strategy is verified by numerical simulations.

Adaptive distributed observer and the cooperative control of multi-agent systems

The distributed observer approach has been an effective way to synthesise a distributed control law for a multi-agent system.However,this approach assumes that all the followers know the system matrix of the leader system,and this assumption may not be desirable in some applications.In this note,we will further introduce an adaptive distributed observer,which is able to estimate both the state and the system matrix of the leader and thus does not require that all the followers know the system matrix of the leader system.We will also point out some applications of the adaptive distributed observer to several cooperative control problems of multiagent systems such as the leader-following consensus problem,the cooperative output regulation problem and rendezvous and/or flocking.

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.

Tracking consensus for nonlinear heterogeneous multi-agent systems subject to unknown disturbances via sliding mode control

We investigate the tracking control for a class of nonlinear heterogeneous leader-follower multi-agent systems（MAS）with unknown external disturbances. Firstly, the neighbor-based distributed finite-time observers are proposed for the followers to estimate the position and velocity of the leader. Then, two novel distributed adaptive control laws are designed by means of linear sliding mode（LSM） as well as nonsingular terminal sliding mode（NTSM）, respectively. One can prove that the tracking consensus can be achieved asymptotically under LSM and the tracking error can converge to a quite small neighborhood of the origin in finite time by NTSM in spite of uncertainties and disturbances. Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.

Flocking Control of a Group of Agents Using a Fuzzy-Logic-Based Attractive/Repulsive Function

In this study, a novel procedure is presented for control and analysis of a group of autonomous agents with point mass dynamics achieving flocking motion by using a fuzzy-logic-based attractive/repulsive function. Two cooperative control laws are proposed for a group of autonomous agents to achieve flocking formations related to two different centers (mass center and geometric center) of the flock. The first one is designed for flocking motion guided at mass center and the other for geometric center. A virtual agent is introduced to represent a group objective for tracking purposes. Smooth graph Laplacian is introduced to overcome the difficulties in theoretical analysis. A new fuzzy-logic-based attractive/repulsive function is proposed for separation and cohesion control among agents. The theoretical results are presented to indicate the stability (separation, collision avoidance and velocity matching) of the control systems. Finally, simulation example is demonstrated to validate the theoretical results.

Neural-network-based fully distributed formation control for nonlinear multi-agent systems with event-triggered communication

This paper investigates the consensus-based formation control problem for multi-agent systems with unknown nonlinear dynamics.To achieve the desired formation,we propose two formation controllers to achieve the desired formation,one based on system states and the other on system outputs.The proposed controllers utilize adaptive gains to avoid global information and neural networks to estimate and compensate for nonlinearities.The proposed event-triggered schemes avoid continuous communication among agents and exclude the Zeno behavior.Stability analysis reveals that formation errors are bounded,and numerical simulations are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

Neural networks-based iterative learning control consensus for periodically time-varying multi-agent systems

In this paper,the problem of adaptive iterative learning based consensus control for periodically time-varying multi-agent systems is studied,in which the dynamics of each follower are driven by nonlinearly parameterized terms with periodic disturbances.Neural networks and Fourier base expansions are introduced to describe the periodically time-varying dynamic terms.On this basis,an adaptive learning parameter with a positively convergent series term is constructed,and a distributed control protocol based on local signals between agents is designed to ensure accurate consensus of the closed-loop systems.Furthermore,consensus algorithm is generalized to solve the formation control problem.Finally,simulation experiments are implemented through MATLAB to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method used.

Leader-following coordination of multi-agent systems with information feedback

Based on the strategy of information feedback from followers to the leader, flocking control of a group of agents with a leader is studied. The leader tracks a pre-defined trajectory and at the same time the leader uses the feedback information from followers to the leader to modify its motion. The advantage of this control scheme is that it reduces the tracking errors and improves the robustness of the team cohesion to followers＇ faults. The results of simulation are provided to illustrate that information feedback can improve the performance of the system.