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This paper studies, the role of persistent flows in the convergence of infinite backward products of stochastic matrices of deterministic chains over networks with nonreciprocal interactions between agents. An arc describing the interaction strength between two agents is said to be persistent if its weight function has an infinite l(1) norm; convergence of the infinite backward products to a rank-one matrix of a deterministic chain of stochastic matrices is equivalent to achieving consensus at the node states. We discuss two balance conditions on the interactions between agents, which generalize the arc-balance and cut-balance conditions in the literature, respectively. The proposed conditions require that such a balance should be satisfied over each time window of a fixed length instead of at each time instant. We prove that in both cases global consensus is reached if and only if the persistent graph, which consists of all the persistent arcs, contains a directed spanning tree. The convergence rates of the system to consensus are also provided in terms of the interactions between agents having taken place. The results are obtained under a weak condition without assuming the existence of a positive lower bound of all the nonzero weights of arcs and are compared with the existing results. Illustrative examples are provided to validate the results and show the critical importance of the nontrivial lower boundedness of the self-confidence of the agents., QC 20190820

In power system operation, the economic dispatch problem (EDP) aims to minimize the total generation cost while meeting the demand and satisfying generator capacity limits. This paper proposes an algorithm based on the gradient push-sum method to solve the EDP in a distributed manner over communication networks potentially with time-varying topologies and communication delays. This paper shows that the proposed algorithm is guaranteed to solve the EDP if the time-varying directed communication network is uniformly jointly strongly connected. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is also able to handle arbitrarily large but bounded time-varying delays on communication links. Numerical simulations are used to illustrate and validate the proposed algorithm.

We study the consensus problem of discrete-time systems under persistent flow and non-reciprocal interactions between agents. An arc describing the interaction strength between two agents is said to be persistent if its weight function has an infinite l(1) norm. We discuss two balance conditions on the interactions between agents which generalize the arc-balance and cut-balance conditions in the literature respectively. The proposed conditions require that such a balance should be satisfied over each time window of a fixed length instead of at each time instant. We prove that in both cases global consensus is reached if and only if the persistent graph, which consists of all the persistent arcs, contains a directed spanning tree. The convergence rates are also provided in terms of the number of node interactions that have taken place., QC 20180305

Attitude coordinated control of multiple underactuated spacecraft is studied in this paper. We adopt the parametrization proposed by Tsiotras et al. (1995) to describe attitude kinematics, which has been shown to be very convenient for control of underactuated axisymmetric spacecraft with two control torques. We first propose a partial attitude coordinated controller with angular velocity commands. The controller is based on the exchange of each spacecraft's information with local neighbors and a self-damping term. Under a necessary and general connectivity assumption and by use of a novel Lyapunov function, we show that the symmetry axes of all spacecraft are eventually aligned. Full attitude control of multiple underactuated spacecraft is also considered and a discontinuous distributed control algorithm is proposed. It is shown that the proposed algorithm succeeds in achieving stabilization given that control parameters are chosen properly. Discussions on the cases without self damping are also provided for both partial and full attitude controls. Simulations are given to validate the theoretical results and different steadystate behaviors are observed., QC 20180111

In this paper, we study the targeted agreement problem for a group of Lagrangian systems. Each system observes a convex set as its local target and the objective of the group is to reach a generalized coordinate agreement towards these target sets. Typically, the generalized coordinate represents position or angle. We first consider the case when the communication graphs are fixed. A control law is proposed based on each system's own target sensing and information exchange with neighbors. With necessary connectivity, the generalized coordinates of multiple Lagrangian systems are shown to achieve agreement in the intersection of all the local target sets while generalized coordinate derivatives are driven to zero. We also discuss the case when the intersection of the local target sets is empty. Exact targeted agreement cannot be achieved in this case. Instead, we show that approximate targeted agreement can be guaranteed if the control gains are properly chosen. In addition, when communication graphs are allowed to be switching, we propose a model-dependent control algorithm and show that global targeted agreement is achieved when joint connectivity is guaranteed and the intersection of local target sets is nonempty. Simulations are given to validate the theoretical results., QC 20171018

This brief considers the synchronization problem of coupled nonlinear dynamical systems over time-varying interaction graphs. We first show that infinite joint connectivity is necessary for achieving globally asymptotic synchronization. We then show that the commonly used Lipschitz condition on the nonlinear self-dynamics is not sufficient to ensure synchronization even for an arbitrarily large coupling strength. A sufficient synchronization condition is established in terms of the times of connectivity, the integral of the Lipschitz gain, and the network parameters., QC 20160428

This brief considers the existence of periodic behaviors for discrete-time second-order multiagent systems with input saturation constraints. We first consider the case where the agent dynamics is a double integrator and then establish conditions on the feedback gains of the linear consensus control law for achieving periodic behaviors. This, in turn, shows that the previously established sufficient condition for reaching global consensus has a necessary aspect since these two conditions are exclusive. We further consider all other second-order agent dynamics and show that these multiagent systems under the linear consensus law exhibit periodic solutions provided the feedback gains satisfy certain conditions. Simulation results are used to validate the theoretical findings., QC 20160818

In this paper, we study the discrete-time consensus problem over networks with antagonistic and cooperative interactions. A cooperative interaction between two nodes takes place when one node receives the true state of the other while an antagonistic interaction happens when the former receives the opposite of the true state of the latter. We adopt a quite general model where the node communications can be either unidirectional or bidirectional, the network topology graph may vary over time, and the cooperative or antagonistic relations can be time-varying. It is proven that, the limits of all the node states exist, and the absolute values of the node states reach consensus if the switching interaction graph is uniformly jointly strongly connected for unidirectional topologies, or infinitely jointly connected for bidirectional topologies. These results are independent of the switching of the interaction relations. We construct a counterexample to indicate a rather surprising fact that quasi-strong connectivity of the interaction graph, i.e., the graph contains a directed spanning tree, is not sufficient to guarantee the consensus in absolute values even under fixed topologies. Based on these results, we also propose sufficient conditions for bipartite consensus to be achieved over the network with joint connectivity. Finally, simulation results using a discrete-time Kuramoto model are given to illustrate the convergence results showing that the proposed framework is applicable to a class of networks with general nonlinear dynamics., QC 20161114

This paper considers scheduled anti-windup design of linear systems in the presence of input saturation. We introduce the scheduled controller design method into the anticipatory anti-windup scheme. The proposed controllers are triggered depending on the response of the system, rather than only considering the worst noise case off-line, and then activating the anti-windup scheme before the physical actuator arrives saturation. The system stability and certain levels of performance are guaranteed under the proposed anti-windup scheme. The control feedback law is analyzed under the scheme of static feedback compensator, while the results are presented using the linear matrix inequality technique. The advantage of the proposed scheduled anticipatory scheme over immediate activation is illustrated through a numerical example., QC 20151123

In this paper, we consider the synchronization problem for a network of state diffusive coupled agents with identical but time-varying dynamics under switching communication topologies. Both leader-follower and leaderless networks are studied. For leader-follower networks, sufficient conditions are established regarding the connectivity of communication graphs for the network to achieve global exponential or asymptotic synchronization, respectively, for directed and undirected communications. For leaderless networks, sufficient conditions for asymptotic norm synchronization are established, respectively, for directed and undirected communications, in the sense that the norm of agents' states converges to a common value. We also show that if the communication graph is fixed, norm synchronization leads to state synchronization. The results reveal some important similarities and differences between leaderless and leader-follower networks for synchronization under directed switching communication graphs., QC 20151123

In this paper, we construct a framework to describe and study the coordinated output regulation problem for multiple heterogeneous linear systems. Each agent is modeled as a general linear multiple-input multiple-output system with an autonomous exosystem which represents the individual offset from the group reference for the agent. The multi-agent system as a whole has a group exogenous state which represents the tracking reference for the whole group. Under the constraints that the group exogenous output is only locally available to each agent and that the agents have only access to their neighbors' information, we propose observer-based feedback controllers to solve the coordinated output regulation problem using output feedback information. A high-gain approach is used and the information interactions are allowed to be switching over a finite set of networks containing both graphs that have a directed spanning tree and graphs that do not. Simulations are shown to validate the theoretical results., QC 20150505

In this paper, we study the set target aggregation problem of multiple mechanical systems. Each system is modeled by a Lagrangian dynamical equation and observes a convex set as its local target. The objective of the group is to reach an aggregation towards these target sets.We propose a set target aggregation algorithm that is constructed based on each mechanical system's own target sensing and the exchange of its information with local neighbors. With necessary connectivity for both fixed and switching communication topologies, multiple mechanical systems are shown to converge to the intersection of all the local target sets while the vectors of generalized coordinate derivatives are driven to zero. Simulations are given to validate the theoretical results., QC 20151130

In this paper, we first study agreement protocols for coupled continuous-time nonlinear dynamics over cooperative multi-agent networks. To guarantee convergence for such systems, it is common in the literature to assume that the vector field of each agent is pointing inside the convex hull formed by the states of the agent and its neighbors given the relative states between each agent and its neighbors are available. This convexity condition is relaxed in this paper, as we show that it is enough that the vector field belongs to a strict tangent cone based on a local supporting hyperrectangle. The new condition has the natural physical interpretation of adding a compass for each agent in addition to the available local relative states, as each agent needs only to know in which orthant each of its neighbor is. It is proven that the multi-agent system achieves exponential state agreement if and only if the time-varying interaction graph is uniformly jointly quasi-strongly connected. Cooperative-antagonistic multi-agent networks are also considered. For these systems, the (cooperative-antagonistic) relation has a negative sign for arcs corresponding to antagonistic interactions. State agreement may not be achieved for cooperative-antagonistic multi-agent systems. Instead it is shown that asymptotic modulus agreement is achieved if the time-varying interaction graph is uniformly jointly strongly connected., QC 20150525

In this paper, we consider the global consensus problem for discrete-time multi-agent systems with input saturation constraints under fixed undirected topologies. We first give necessary conditions for achieving global consensus via a distributed protocol based on relative state measurements of the agent itself and its neighboring agents. We then focus on two special cases, where the agent model is either neutrally stable or a double integrator. For the neutrally stable case, any linear protocol of a particular form, which solves the consensus problem for the case without input saturation constraints, also solves the global consensus problem for the case with input saturation constraints. For the double integrator case, we show that a subset of linear protocols, which solve the consensus problem for the case without saturation constraints, also solve the global consensus problem for the case with input saturation constraints. The results are illustrated by numerical simulations., QC 20140314

This paper studies finite-time coordinated tracking problem for multiple double integrator systems with a time-varying leader's velocity and bounded external disturbances. We consider the dynamic feedback designs for two different cases. In the first case, the velocities of the followers and the leader are assumed to be unavailable, and the communication topology is assumed to be undirected and fixed. In the second case, the velocities of the followers and the leader are assumed to be available, and the communication topology is assumed to be directed and switching. Distributed finite-time observers are designed, respectively, to obtain the velocity information in the first case and the relative state information in the second case. The states of these observers are then used to design control inputs that achieve finite time robust coordinated tracking of multiple double integrator systems in the presence of bounded disturbances for these two cases. Simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of these theoretical results., QC 20141205

In this paper, we study the coordinated tracking problem of multiple heterogeneous Lagrange systems with a dynamic leader. Only nominal parameters of Lagrange dynamics are assumed to be available. Under the local interaction constraints, i.e., the followers only have access to their neighbors' information and the leader being a neighbor of only a subset of the followers, continuous coordinated tracking algorithms with adaptive coupling gains are proposed. Except for the benefit of the chattering-free control achieved, the proposed algorithm also has the attribute that it does not require the neighbors' generalized coordinate derivatives. Global asymptotic coordinated tracking is guaranteed, and the tracking errors between the followers and the leader are shown to converge to zero. Examples are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms., QC 20140707

We study leaderless attitude synchronization problem of multiple underactuated spacecraft in this paper. We adopt the special parameterizations of attitude proposed by Tsiotras et al. (1995) to describe attitude kinematics, which has been shown to be very convenient for control of underactuated axisymmetric spacecraft with two control torques. It is assumed that angular velocity commands are possible and this paper is confined to the kinematic level. We first propose a partial attitude synchronization controller that is based on the exchange of each spacecraft's information with local neighbors. Under a necessary and general connectivity assumption and by use of an appropriate Lyapunov function, we show that the attitudes of spacecraft converge to a fixed or time-varying synchronization trajectory. Then, full attitude synchronization of multiple underactuated spacecraft is considered, where the discontinuous distributed algorithm is proposed. Simulations are given to validate the theoretical results and indicate several interesting observations., QC 20150123

This paper studies the containment and group dispersion control for a multi-robot system in the presence of dynamic leaders. Each robot is represented by a doubleintegrator dynamic model and a distributed control algorithm is developed to drive the multi-robot system to follow a group of dynamic leaders with containment and group dispersion behaviors. The effectiveness of the algorithm is then verified on a multi-robot control platform., QC 20161107

Anti-windup design is an intuitive and efficient way to deal with input saturation nonlinearities. In the classic anti-windup design, the compensator is set to be activated immediately as the control signal saturates the actuator. An important innovation in the anti-windup activation mechanism is to delay the activation of the anti-windup mechanism until the saturation reaches to a certain severity which led to a performance improvement of the resulting closed-loop system. More recently, it was shown that by activating a static anti-windup mechanism in anticipation of actuator saturation, significant further performance improvements can be achieved in comparison with the delayed activation design. In addition, we have combined both the delayed and anticipatory activation mechanisms, to develop the multiple activation strategy, in terms of L2 gain performance. This paper furthermore considers the problem of enlarging domain of attraction and demonstrates that the multiple activation of a static multiple feedback anti-windup mechanism would also lead to significant performance improvements over both the immediate and delayed activation schemes., QC 20140121

In this paper, a distributed cooperative tracking problem is studied for a group of non-identical second-order nonlinear systems with bounded external disturbances. The control goal is to drive the states of the followers to converge to those of a time-varying leader in the presence of only local information interactions from the leader to the followers and between the followers. We first propose a simple distributed control algorithm for the case when both the relative position and relative velocity measurements are available for feedback. It is shown that distributed cooperative tracking can be achieved if in the sensing topology the leader has directed paths to all followers. Then, the extension to the case when the velocity measurements are not available is studied. We consider two different scenarios, i.e., when the absolute position measurements and local communication between neighbors are available and only the relative position measurements are available. Distributed observers and distributed control inputs are designed to address these two scenarios. Numerical studies are carried out to illustrate the theoretical results., QC 20130905

This paper studies the containment and group dispersion control for a multi-robot system in the presence of dynamic leaders. Each robot is represented by a double-integrator dynamic model and a distributed control algorithm is developed to drive the multi-robot system to follow a group of dynamic leaders with containment and group dispersion behaviors. The effectiveness of the algorithm is then verified on a multi-robot control platform., QC 20140121

A multiple anti-windup loops under multiple dynamic activations strategy is proposed to enlarge the domain of attraction. This work is parallel to the multiple activation case with static compensators. The traditional anti-windup compensator is activated immediately as the saturation occurs. It was shown recently that, by delaying the activation of the anti-windup mechanism to a certain level, the performance can be improved for the closed-loop system. It was further shown that better performance can be obtained by activating an anti-windup mechanism in anticipation of actuator saturation, in comparison with the delayed activation design. This paper considers the anti-windup design problem of enlarging domain of attraction under a dynamic multiple activation scheme. In this multiple activation scheme, the anticipatory, delayed and immediate activation mechanism is incorporated in the same framework simultaneously. A furthermore significant performance improvements over both the immediate and delayed activation schemes can be observed. The proposed dynamic multiple activation scheme established a unified anti-windup framework and can be readily extended to the traditional immediate, delayed and anticipatory activation anti-windup mechanisms., QC 20140121

In this paper, we give necessary conditions for achieving global consensus in homogeneous networks of discrete-time linear time-invariant agents with input saturation constraints under fixed undirected topologies. For two special cases, where the agent model is either neutrally stable or a double integrator, these necessary conditions together with a gain condition are also sufficient. We show this by designing a linear protocol based on the combination of state differences between the agent and its neighbors. In particular, for the neutrally stable case, we show that any linear protocol of a particular form which solves the consensus problem for the case without input saturation constraints also solves the global consensus problem for the case with input saturation constraints. For the double integrator case, we show that a subset of linear protocols which solve the consensus problem for the case without saturation constraints also solve the global consensus problem in the presence of input saturation. The results are illustrated by numerical simulations., QC 20140325

The coordinated output regulation problem for multiple heterogeneous linear systems is studied in this paper. Each agent is modeled as a linear multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with an exogenous input which represents the individual tracking objective for the agent. The multi-agent system as a whole has a group exogenous input which represents the tracking objective for the whole group. Under the constraints that the group exogenous input is only locally available to each agent and that the agents have only access to their neighbors' information, we propose an observer-based feedback controller to solve the coordinated output regulation problem. A high-gain approach is introduced and the information interactions are allowed to be switching over a finite set of fixed networks containing both graphs having a spanning tree and graphs that do not. A lower bound of the high gain parameters is explicitly given. It describes a fundamental relationship between the information interactions, the dwell time, the non-identical dynamics of different agents, and the high gain parameters., QC 20140911

In this paper, we study the coordinated tracking problem of multiple Lagrange systems with a time-varying leader's generalized coordinate derivative. Under a purely local interaction constraint, i.e., the followers only have access to their local neighbors' information and the leader is a neighbor of only a subset of the followers, a continuous coordinated tracking algorithm with adaptive coupling gains is proposed. Tracking errors between the followers and the leader are shown to converge to zero. Then, we extend this result to the case when the leader's generalized coordinate derivative is constant. Examples are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed continuous coordinated tracking algorithms., QC 20140911

In this paper, we give conditions for the existence of periodic behaviors in a multi-agent system of identical discrete-time double integrators with input saturation constraints. If the feedback gain parameters of the controllers, which are based on relative state measurements of the agent itself and its neighboring agents, are bounded by a value depending on the largest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix, then the multi-agent system exhibits a periodic solution for certain initial conditions., QC 20140912

A multiple anti-windup loops under multiple dynamic activations strategy is proposed to enlarge the domain of attraction. This work is parallel to the multiple activation case with static compensators. The traditional anti-windup compensator is activated immediately as the saturation occurs. It was shown recently that, by delaying the activation of the anti-windup mechanism to a certain level, the performance can be improved for the closed-loop system. It was further shown that better performance can be obtained by activating an anti-windup mechanism in anticipation of actuator saturation, in comparison with the delayed activation design. This paper considers the anti-windup design problem of enlarging domain of attraction under a dynamic multiple activation scheme. In this multiple activation scheme, the anticipatory, delayed and immediate activation mechanism is incorporated in the same framework simultaneously. A furthermore significant performance improvements over both the immediate and delayed activation schemes can be observed. The proposed dynamic multiple activation scheme established a unified anti-windup framework and can be readily extended to the traditional immediate, delayed and anticipatory activation anti-windup mechanisms., QC 20211021