Interconnection topologies for multi-agent coordination under leader–follower framework

Abstract

In this paper, the formation control of networks of multiple agents is studied via controllability, where the network is under leader-follower structure with some agents taking the leader role and others being followers interconnected via neighbor-based rule. It is shown that the controllability of a multi-agent system is uniquely determined by the topology structure of interconnection graph, and the investigation of which comes down to that for a multi-agent system with the interconnection graph being connected. Based on these observations, two kinds of interconnection graph topologies are characterized, under which the network of multiple agents is uncontrollable, revealing to some extent how the controllability, and accordingly the formation control, are affected by the interconnection topology between agents. Finally, a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of eigenvector is presented. The results also touch upon the selection of leaders and are illustrated by several examples.

Controllability of discrete-time multi-agent systems with directed topology and input delay

“…This is partly due to its broad applications in the control of sensor networks, formation control of mobile robots and scheduling of automated highway systems, etc. In cooperative control, many critical problems such as consensus, containment, controllability, formation and connectivity preservation problems are widely discussed in Jadbabaie, Lin, and Morse (2003), Olfati-Saber and Murray (2004), Xiao and Wang (2006), Liu, Xie, and Wang (2012), Zheng and Wang (2014), Zhang, Hao, Zhang, and Wang (2014), Wang (2009), Ji, Lin, andYu (2012), Ji, Lin, and Yu (2014), Guan, Ji, Zhang, and Wang (2013), Guan, Ji, Zhang, and Wang (2014), Sun, Wang, and Xie (2008), Wang and Xiao (2010), Ajorlou, Momeni, and Aghdam (2010) and Wu and Wang (2015). Among all the aforementioned research issues, a significant one is to design and carry out decentralised algorithms for the controllability of multi-agent systems.…”

Self-organized swarm robot for target search and trapping inspired by bacterial chemotaxis

“…Target trapping methods are similar to pattern formation using swarm robots, which is often concerned with the formation of a complex shape. In recent years, much work has been devoted to solving complex shape formation using swarm robots, which can be divided into global shape information [6] [7] and local affection [8] [9]. Feng et al developed a finite-time formation control framework that included global information and local information [6].…”

“…Ghods et al designed a control algorithm based on the heat partial differential equation (PDE) and extremum seeking for deploying a group of agents [8]. Ji et al used the leader-follower structure with the neighbor-based rule determined by the topology structure of an interconnection graph to solve the formation control problem [9].…”

Consensus of Switched Multiagent Systems

“…It has received a major attention of multidisciplinary researchers including system control theory, mathematics, biology, statistical physics and so on. This is partly due to its broad applications in many fields, such as formation control, flocking, synchronization and target tracking of robots, social insects, complex networks, sensor networks, etc [1,2,3,4].…”