This paper addresses the consensus problem of multiagent systems with a time-invariant communication topology consisting of general linear node dynamics. A distributed observer-type consensus protocol based on relative output measurements is proposed. A new framework is introduced to address in a unified way the consensus of multiagent systems and the synchronization of complex networks. Under this framework, the consensus of multiagent systems with a communication topology having a spanning tree can be cast into the stability of a set of matrices of the same low dimension. The notion of consensus region is then introduced and analyzed. It is shown that there exists an observer-type protocol solving the consensus problem and meanwhile yielding an unbounded consensus region if and only if each agent is both stabilizable and detectable. A multistep consensus protocol design procedure is further presented. The consensus with respect to a time-varying state and the robustness of the consensus protocol to external disturbances are finally discussed. The effectiveness of the theoretical results is demonstrated through numerical simulations, with an application to low-Earth-orbit satellite formation flying.

Consensus of Multiagent Systems and Synchronization of Complex Networks: A Unified Viewpoint

Differential-Difference Equations. By Richard Bellman and Kenneth L. Cooke. Pp. xvi, 465. 1963. (Academic Press)

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

A survey of multi-agent formation control

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

Tracking control for multi-agent consensus with an active leader and variable topology

In this paper, we consider a leader-following consensus problem of a group of autonomous agents with time-varying coupling delays. Two different cases of coupling topologies are investigated. At first, a necessary and sufficient condition is proved in the case when the interconnection topology is fixed and directed. Then a sufficient condition is proposed in the case when the coupling topology is switched and balanced. Numerical examples are also given to illustrate our results.

Leader-following coordination of multi-agent systems with coupling time delays

This note addresses a coordination problem of a multiagent system with jointly connected interconnection topologies. Neighbor-based rules are adopted to realize local control strategies for these continuous-time autonomous agents described by double integrators. Although the interagent connection structures vary over time and related graphs may not be connected, a sufficient condition to make all the agents converge to a common value is given for the problem by a proposed Lyapunov-based approach and related space decomposition technique

/pdf/lyapunov-based-approach-to-multiagent-systems-with-switching-3uwk77kduj.pdf

Jiangping Hu

Papers

Tracking control for multi-agent consensus with an active leader and variable topology

Leader-following coordination of multi-agent systems with coupling time delays

Lyapunov-Based Approach to Multiagent Systems With Switching Jointly Connected Interconnection

Brief paper: Distributed tracking control of leader-follower multi-agent systems under noisy measurement

Emergent collective behaviors on coopetition networks