This paper reviews some main results and progress in distributed multi-agent coordination, focusing on papers published in major control systems and robotics journals since 2006. Distributed coordination of multiple vehicles, including unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles, and unmanned underwater vehicles, has been a very active research subject studied extensively by the systems and control community. The recent results in this area are categorized into several directions, such as consensus, formation control, optimization, and estimation. After the review, a short discussion section is included to summarize the existing research and to propose several promising research directions along with some open problems that are deemed important for further investigations.

/pdf/an-overview-of-recent-progress-in-the-study-of-distributed-1xnb6e12se.pdf

An Overview of Recent Progress in the Study of Distributed Multi-Agent Coordination

This article reviews some main results and progress in distributed multi-agent coordination, focusing on papers published in major control systems and robotics journals since 2006. Distributed coordination of multiple vehicles, including unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles, has been a very active research subject studied extensively by the systems and control community. The recent results in this area are categorized into several directions, such as consensus, formation control, optimization, task assignment, and estimation. After the review, a short discussion section is included to summarize the existing research and to propose several promising research directions along with some open problems that are deemed important for further investigations.

An Overview of Recent Progress in the Study of Distributed Multi-agent Coordination

https://people.kth.se/~kallej/papers/event-triggerd_auto13_sey.pdf

Event-based broadcasting for multi-agent average consensus

A distributed event-triggered transmission strategy for sampled-data consensus of multi-agent systems

This paper investigates the joint effect of agent dynamic, network topology and communication data rate on consensusability of linear discrete-time multi-agent systems. Neglecting the finite communication data rate constraint and under undirected graphs, a necessary and sufficient condition for consensusability under a common control protocol is given, which explicitly reveals how the intrinsic entropy rate of the agent dynamic and the communication graph jointly affect consensusability. The result is established by solving a discrete-time simultaneous stabilization problem. A lower bound of the optimal convergence rate to consensus, which is shown to be tight for some special cases, is provided as well. Moreover, a necessary and sufficient condition for formationability of multi-agent systems is obtained. As a special case, the discrete-time second-order consensus is discussed where an optimal control gain is designed to achieve the fastest convergence. The effects of undirected graphs on consensability/formationability and optimal convergence rate are exactly quantified by the ratio of the second smallest to the largest eigenvalues of the graph Laplacian matrix. An extension to directed graphs is also made. The consensus problem under a finite communication data rate is finally investigated.

Network Topology and Communication Data Rate for Consensusability of Discrete-Time Multi-Agent Systems

Necessary and sufficient conditions for containment control of networked multi-agent systems

In this paper, consensus problems of continuous-time networked multi-agent systems via sampled control are investigated. The sampled control protocols are induced from continuous-time linear consensus protocol by using periodic sampling technology and zero-order hold circuit. Two cases are considered: 1) networks without sampling delay; 2) networks with sampling delay. For each case, an algebraic-type necessary and sufficient condition is obtained under which consensus is achieved. Some numerical simulations are presented, which are consistent with our theoretical results.

Consensus in networked multi-agent systems via sampled control: Switching topology case

In this paper, consensus problems of double-integrator dynamics via sampled control are investigated. The sampled control protocol is induced from continuous-time linear consensus protocol by using periodic sampling technology and zero-order hold circuit. With the obtained sampled control protocol, the continuous-time multi-agent system is equivalently transformed into a linear discrete-time system. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given to guarantee that all the agents asymptotically travel with zero relative positions and common velocities. Furthermore, consensus problem with continuous-time consensus protocol is re-analyzed. A necessary and sufficient condition is also obtained which is consistent with the special case when the sampling period tends to zero. The effectiveness of these algorithms is demonstrated through simulations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for solving consensus problems of double-integrator dynamics via sampled control

Containment of linear multi-agent systems under general interaction topologies

This paper provides consensus analysis for networked continuous-time multi-agent systems via sampled control. The sampled control protocol is induced from a continuous-time consensus protocol by using periodic sampling technology and zero-order hold circuit. Meanwhile, time-varying delay that can be both smaller and larger than the sampling interval is taken into account. Based on graph theory and stability theory, a sufficient condition is proposed to guarantee the consensus achievement under the condition that communication channels suffer from time-varying delay. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a valid distributed consensus algorithm that explicitly describes which state information may be received in the concerning sampling interval. The results are illustrated by some simulations.

Huiyang Liu

Papers

Necessary and sufficient conditions for containment control of networked multi-agent systems

Consensus in networked multi-agent systems via sampled control: Switching topology case

Necessary and sufficient conditions for solving consensus problems of double-integrator dynamics via sampled control

Containment of linear multi-agent systems under general interaction topologies

Consensus of multi-agent systems with time-varying delay