Consensus problem of multi-agent systems under arbitrary topology

Consensus problem of second-order leader-following multi-agent systems under arbitrary topology is investigated in this paper.Arbitrary topology means the variable topology shifts continuously rather than switches among several different structures.For ensuring the consensus of leader-following multi-agent systems,some sufficient conditions and controller design principles are deduced both for a double-integrator case and a nonlinear case.Certainly,numerical simulations are carried out to prove the feasibility and effectiveness of theory derivation,which vividly illustrates that the following agents can successfully track the leader agent.

Nonlinear consensus protocols for multi-agent systems based on centre manifold reduction

Nonlinear consensus protocols for dynamic directed networks of multi-agent systems with fixed and switching topologies are investigated separately in this paper. Based on the centre manifold reduction technique, nonlinear consensus protocols are presented. We prove that a group of agents can reach a β-consensus, the value of which is the group decision value varying from the minimum and the maximum values of the initial states of the agents. Moreover, we derive the conditions to guarantee that all the agents reach a β-consensus on a desired group decision value. Finally, a simulation study concerning the vertical alignment manoeuvere of a team of unmanned air vehicles is performed. Simulation results show that the nonlinear consensus protocols proposed are more effective than the linear protocols for the formation control of the agents and they are an improvement over existing protocols.

Adaptive output consensus for heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems with multi-type input constraints under switching-directed topologies

This study concentrates on solving the output consensus problem for a class of heterogeneous uncertain nonstrict-feedback nonlinear multi-agent systems under switching-directed communication topologies,in which all followers are subjected to multi-type input constraints such as unknown asymmetric saturation,unknown dead-zone and their integration.A unified representation is presented to overcome the difficulties originating from multi-agent input constraints.Moreover,the uncertain system functions in a non-lower triangular form and the interaction terms among agents are dealt with by exploiting the fuzzy logic systems and their special property.Furthermore,by introducing a nonlinear filter to alleviate the problem of“explosion of complexity”during the backstepping design,a distributed common adaptive control protocol is proposed to ensure that the synchronization errors converge to a small neighborhood of the origin despite the existence of multiple input constraints and arbitrary switching communication topologies.Both stability analysis and simulation results are conducted to show the effectiveness and performance of the proposed control methodology.