Finite-Time Consensus of Second-Order Switched Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems

Complete Stability of Delayed Recurrent Neural Networks With New Wave-Type Activation Functions

Activation functions have a significant effect on the dynamics of neural networks (NNs). This study proposes new nonmonotonic wave-type activation functions and examines the complete stability of delayed recurrent NNs (DRNNs) with these activation functions. Using the geometrical properties of the wave-type activation function and subsequent iteration scheme, sufficient conditions are provided to ensure that a DRNN with n neurons has exactly $(2m + 3)^{n}$ equilibria, where $(m + 2)^{n}$ equilibria are locally exponentially stable, the remainder $(2m + 3)^{n} - (m + 2)^{n}$ equilibria are unstable, and a positive integer m is related to wave-type activation functions. Furthermore, the DRNN with the proposed activation function is completely stable. Compared with the previous literature, the total number of equilibria and the stable equilibria significantly increase, thereby enhancing the memory storage capacity of DRNN. Finally, several examples are presented to demonstrate our proposed results.

Optimal Consensus Control for Continuous-Time Linear Multiagent Systems: A Dynamic Event-Triggered Approach

This article investigates the optimal consensus problem for general linear multiagent systems (MASs) via a dynamic event-triggered approach. First, a modified interaction-related cost function is proposed. Second, a dynamic event-triggered approach is developed by constructing a new distributed dynamic triggering function and a new distributed event-triggered consensus protocol. Consequently, the modified interaction-related cost function can be minimized by applying the distributed control laws, which overcomes the difficulty in the optimal consensus problem that seeking the interaction-related cost function needs all agents' information. Then, some sufficient conditions are obtained to guarantee optimality. It is shown that the developed optimal consensus gain matrices are only related to the designed triggering parameters and the desirable modified interaction-related cost function, relaxing the constraint that the controller design requires the knowledge of system dynamics, initial states, and network scale. Meanwhile, the tradeoff between optimal consensus performance and event-triggered behavior is also considered. Finally, a simulation example is provided to verify the validity of the designed distributed event-triggered optimal controller.

Predefined Accuracy Adaptive Tracking Control for Nonlinear Multiagent Systems With Unmodeled Dynamics

This article focuses on an adaptive dynamic surface tracking control issue of nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) with unmodeled dynamics and input quantization under predefined accuracy. Radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) are employed to estimate unknown nonlinear items. A dynamic signal is established to handle the trouble introduced by the unmodeled dynamics. Moreover, the predefined precision control is realized with the aid of two key functions. Unlike the existing works on nonlinear MASs with unmodeled dynamics, to avoid the issue of "explosion of complexity," the dynamic surface control (DSC) method is applied with the nonlinear filter. By using the designed controller, the consensus errors can gather to a precision assigned a priori. Finally, the simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

Neural Network-Based Fixed-Time Tracking and Containment Control of Second-Order Heterogeneous Nonlinear Multiagent Systems

This study concentrates on the fixed-time tracking consensus and containment control of second-order heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) with and without measurable velocity under directed topology. By defining a time-varying scaling function and approximating the unknown nonlinear dynamics with radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs), a novel distributed protocol for solving the fixed-time tracking consensus and containment control problems of second-order heterogeneous nonlinear MASs with full states available is proposed based on a nonsingular sliding-mode control method constructed by designing a prescribed-time convergent sliding surface. For the scenario of immeasurable velocity, a fixed-time convergent states' observer is designed to reveal the velocity information when the unknown linearity is bounded. Subsequently, a distributed fixed-time consensus protocol based on observed velocity information is proposed for the extended results. Ultimately, the acquired results are verified by three simulation examples.

Research Ideas Discovery via Hierarchical Negative Correlation

A new research idea may be inspired by the connections of keywords. Link prediction discovers potential nonexisting links in an existing graph and has been applied in many applications. This article explores a method of discovering new research ideas based on link prediction, which predicts the possible connections of different keywords by analyzing the topological structure of the keyword graph. The patterns of links between keywords may be diversified due to different domains and different habits of authors. Therefore, it is often difficult for a single learner to extract diverse patterns of different research domains. To address this issue, groups of learners are organized with negative correlation to encourage the diversity of sublearners. Moreover, a hierarchical negative correlation mechanism is proposed to extract subgraph features in different order subgraphs, which improves the diversity by explicitly supervising the negative correlation on each layer of sublearners. Experiments are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model to discover new research ideas. Under the premise of ensuring the performance of the model, the proposed method consumes less time and computational cost compared with other ensemble methods.

Asymptotical Neuro-Adaptive Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems With a High Dimensional Leader and Directed Switching Topology

We study the asymptotical consensus problem for multi-agent systems (MASs) consisting of a high-dimensional leader and multiple followers with unknown nonlinear dynamics under directed switching topology by using a neural network (NN) adaptive control approach. First, we design an observer for each follower to reconstruct the states of the leader. Second, by using the idea of discontinuous control, we design a discontinuous consensus controller together with an NN adaptive law. Finally, by using the average dwell time (ADT) method and the Barbǎlat's lemma, we show that asymptotical neuroadaptive consensus can be achieved in the considered MAS if the ADT is larger than a positive threshold. Moreover, we study the asymptotical neuroadaptive consensus problem for MASs with intermittent topology. Finally, we perform two simulation examples to validate the obtained theoretical results. In contrast to the existing works, the asymptotical neuroadaptive consensus problem for MASs is firstly solved under directed switching topology.

Adaptive Neural Network-Based Observer Design for Switched Systems With Quantized Measurements

This study is concerned with the adaptive neural network (NN) observer design problem for continuous-time switched systems via quantized output signals. A novel NN observer is presented in which the adaptive laws are constructed using quantized measurements. Then, persistent dwell time (PDT) switching is considered in the observer design to describe fast and slow switching in a unified framework. Accurate estimations of state and actuator efficiency factor can be obtained by the proposed observer technique despite actuator degradation. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed NN observer design approach.

Observer-Based Event-Triggered Adaptive Control for Nonlinear Multiagent Systems With Unknown States and Disturbances

Based on radial basis function neural networks (RBF NNs) and backstepping techniques, this brief considers the consensus tracking problem for nonlinear semi-strict-feedback multiagent systems with unknown states and disturbances. The adaptive event-triggered control scheme is introduced to decrease the update times of the controller so as to save the limited communication resources. To detect the unknown state, external disturbance, and reduce calculation workload, the state observer and disturbance observer as well as the first-order filter are first jointly constructed. It is shown that all the output signals of followers can uniformly track the reference signal of the leader and all the error signals are uniformly bounded. A simulation example is carried out to further prove the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Fixed-Time Adaptive Neural Network Control for Nonlinear Systems With Input Saturation

This study concentrates on the tracking control problem for nonlinear systems subject to actuator saturation. To improve the performance of the controller, we propose a fixed-time tracking control scheme, in which the upper bound of the convergence time is independent of the initial conditions. In the control scheme, first, a smooth nonlinear function is employed to approximate the saturation function so that the controller can be designed under the framework of backstepping. Then, the effect of input saturation is compensated by introducing an auxiliary system. Furthermore, a fixed-time adaptive neural network control method is given with the help of fixed-time control theory, in which the dynamic order of controllers is reduced to a certain extent since there is only one updating law in the entire control design. Through rigorous theoretical analysis, it is concluded that the proposed control scheme can guarantee that: 1) the output tracking error can converge to a small neighborhood near the origin in a fixed time and 2) all signals in the closed-loop system are bounded. Finally, a numerical example and a practical example based on the single-link manipulator are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Finite-Time Robust Intelligent Control of Strict-Feedback Nonlinear Systems With Flight Dynamics Application

The tracking control is investigated for a class of uncertain strict-feedback systems with robust design and learning systems. Using the switching mechanism, the states will be driven back by the robust design when they run out of the region of adaptive control. The adaptive design is working to achieve precise adaptation and higher tracking precision in the neural working domain, while the finite-time robust design is developed to make the system stable outside. To achieve good tracking performance, the novel prediction error-based adaptive law is constructed by considering the estimation performance. Furthermore, the output constraint is achieved by imbedding the barrier Lyapunov function-based design. The finite-time convergence and the uniformly ultimate boundedness of the system signal can be guaranteed. Simulation studies show that the proposed approach presents robustness and adaptation to system uncertainty.

A Separation-Based Methodology to Consensus Tracking of Switched High-Order Nonlinear Multiagent Systems

This work investigates a reduced-complexity adaptive methodology to consensus tracking for a team of uncertain high-order nonlinear systems with switched (possibly asynchronous) dynamics. It is well known that high-order nonlinear systems are intrinsically challenging as feedback linearization and backstepping methods successfully developed for low-order systems fail to work. Even the adding-one-power-integrator methodology, well explored for the single-agent high-order case, presents some complexity issues and is unsuited for distributed control. At the core of the proposed distributed methodology is a newly proposed definition for separable functions: this definition allows the formulation of a separation-based lemma to handle the high-order terms with reduced complexity in the control design. Complexity is reduced in a twofold sense: the control gain of each virtual control law does not have to be incorporated in the next virtual control law iteratively, thus leading to a simpler expression of the control laws; the power of the virtual and actual control laws increases only proportionally (rather than exponentially) with the order of the systems, dramatically reducing high-gain issues.

Singularity-Free Fixed-Time Adaptive Control with Dynamic Surface for Strict-Feedback Nonlinear Systems with Input Hysteresis

An adaptive fixed-time dynamic surface tracking control scheme is developed in this paper for a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems, where the control input is subject to hysteresis dynamics. To deal with the input hysteresis, a compensation filter is introduced, reducing the difficulty of design and analysis. Based on the universal approximation theory, the radial basis function neural networks are employed to approximate the unknown functions in the nonlinear dynamics. On this basis, fixed-time adaptive laws are constructed to approximate the unknown parameters. The dynamic surface technique is utilized to handle the complexity explosion problem, where fixed-time performance is ensured. Moreover, the designed controller can avoid singularities and achieve fixed-time convergence of error signals. Simulation results verify the efficacy of the method developed, where a comparison between the scheme developed with existing results is provided.

Distributed Averaging Problems of Agriculture Picking Multi-Robot Systems via Sampled Control

Distributed control of agriculture picking multi-robot systems has been widely used in the field of smart agriculture, this paper aims to explore the distributed averaging problems of agriculture picking multi-robot systems under directed communication topologies by taking advantage of the sampled data. With the algebraic graph theory concepts and the matrix theory, a distributed protocol is proposed based on the nearest sampled neighbor information. It is shown that under the proposed protocol, the states of all agents can be guaranteed to reach average consensus whose value is the averaging of the initial states of all agents. Besides, when considering time-delay, the other distributed protocol is constructed, in which a time margin of the time-delay can be determined simultaneously. The necessary and sufficient consensus results can be developed even though the time delay exists. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our developed consensus results.

Free-Will Arbitrary Time Consensus for Multiagent Systems

In this article, the free-will arbitrary time consensus is formulated for multiagent systems. This consensus protocol is independent of initial conditions and any other system parameters. With such a protocol, the multiagent system is shown to attain consensus as well as average consensus within the prespecified arbitrary time. Agents rendezvous can also be accomplished with the given protocol. Communication imperfections are easily handled with the designed protocol. Robust free-will arbitrary time consensus protocol is also designed. The stability of such nonlinear nonautonomous protocols is established using suitable Lyapunov functions. Simulation examples confirm the theoretical findings.

Sliding-mode observers based distributed consensus control for nonlinear multi-agent systems with disturbances

The distributed consensus control problem for nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with external disturbances under switching directed topologies is investigated. Distributed sliding-mode observers are designed considering both nonlinear dynamics and disturbances in MASs. Utilizing estimated states information via sliding-mode observers, a control protocol is constructed and analyzed to ensure the MASs reach consensus, and additionally guarantee the desired disturbance rejection criterion. Furthermore, the simulation experiment is carried out by taking multiple simple-pendulum network systems. By comparing this work with the related existing results, our designed observers are superior in estimating states information simultaneously considering both nonlinear dynamics and external disturbances, and the experiment result analysis shows validity of distributed consensus algorithm based on sliding-mode observers for MASs.

Neural-Network-Based Adaptive Fixed-Time Control for Nonlinear Multiagent Non-Affine Systems

In this research, the adaptive neural network consensus control problem is addressed for a class of non-affine multiagent systems (MASs) with actuator faults and stochastic disturbances. To overcome difficulties associated with actuator faults and uncertain functions of the designed MAS, a neural network fault-tolerant control scheme is developed. Moreover, an adaptive backstepping controller is developed to solve the non-affine appearance in multiagent stochastic non-affine systems using the mean value theorem. Being different from the existing control methods, the developed adaptive fixed-time control approach can ensure that the outputs of all followers track the reference signal synchronously in the fixed time, and all signals of the controlled system are semi-globally uniformly fixed-time stable. The simulation results confirm that the presented control strategy is effective in achieving control goals.

Distributed Observer-Based Leader-Follower Consensus of Multiple Euler-Lagrange Systems

This article investigates the leader-follower consensus problem of multiple Euler-Lagrange (EL) systems, where each agent suffers uncertain external disturbances, and the communication links among agents experience faults. Besides, we consider a more general case that only a portion of followers can measure partial components of leader's output and access the dynamic information of leader. The main idea of solving the consensus problem in this article is proceeded in two steps. First, we design an adaptive distributed observer to estimate the full state information of leader in real time with resilience to communication link faults. Second, based on the proposed distributed observer, we propose a proportional-integral (PI) control protocol for each agent to track the trajectory of leader, which is model-independent and robust to uncertain external disturbances. Distinct from the existing leader-follower consensus protocols of multiple EL systems, the proposed distributed observer-based PI consensus protocol in this article is model-independent, which is irrelevant to the structures or features of EL system model. Finally, we present a simulation example to show the resilience of the above adaptive distributed observer and the robustness of the distributed observer-based consensus protocol.

Fault Detection Filter Design and Optimization for Switched Systems with All Modes Unstable

This problem of intelligent switched fault detection filter design is investigated in this article. Firstly, the mode-dependent average dwell time (MDADT) method is applied to generate the time-dependent switching signal for switched systems with all subsystems unstable. Afterwards, the switched fault detection filter is proposed for the generation of residual signal, which consists of dynamics-based filter and learning-based filter. The MDADT method and multiple Lyapunov function (MLF) method are employed to guarantee the stability and prescribed attenuation performance. The parameters of dynamics-based filter are given by solving a series of linear matrix inequalities. To improve the transient performance, the deep reinforcement learning is introduced to design learning-based filter in the framework of actor-critic. The output of learning-based filter can be viewed as uncertainties of dynamics-based filter. The deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm and nonfragile control are adopted to guarantee the stability of algorithm and compensate the external disturbance. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the method in the paper.

Intelligent L2-L∞ Consensus of Multiagent Systems under Switching Topologies via Fuzzy Deep Q Learning

The problem of intelligent L₂-L_∞ consensus design for leader-followers multiagent systems (MASs) under switching topologies is investigated based on switched control theory and fuzzy deep Q learning. It is supposed that the communication topologies are time-varying, and the model of MASs under switching topologies is constructed based on switched systems. By employing linear transformation, the problem of consensus of MASs is converted into the issue of L₂-L_∞ control. The consensus protocol is composed of the dynamics-based protocol and learning-based protocol, where the robust control theory and deep Q learning are applied for the two parts to guarantee the prescribed performance and improve the transient performance. The multiple Lyapunov function (MLF) method and mode-dependent average dwell time (MDADT) method are combined to give the scheduling interval, which ensures stability and prescribed attenuation performance. The sufficient existing conditions of consensus protocol are given, and the solutions of the dynamics-based protocol are derived based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Then, the online design of the learning-based protocol is formulated as a Markov decision process, where the fuzzy deep Q learning is utilized to compensate for the uncertainties and achieve optimal performance. The variation of the learning-based protocol is modeled as the external compensation on the dynamics-based protocol. Therefore, the convergence of the proposed protocol can be guaranteed by employing the nonfragile control theory. In the end, a numerical example is given to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

Event-Triggered Fixed-Time Integral Sliding Mode Control for Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems with Disturbances

In this paper, the leader-following consensus problem of first-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (FONMASs) with external disturbances is studied. Firstly, a novel distributed fixed-time sliding mode manifold is designed and a new static event-triggered protocol over general directed graph is proposed which can well suppress the external disturbances and make the FONMASs achieve leader-following consensus in fixed-time. Based on fixed-time stability theory and inequality technique, the conditions to be satisfied by the control parameters are obtained and the Zeno behavior can be avoided. In addition, we improve the proposed protocol and propose a new event-triggering strategy for the FONMASs with multiple leaders. The systems can reach the sliding mode surface and achieve containment control in fixed-time if the control parameters are designed carefully. Finally, several numerical simulations are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed protocols.

Neural Learning-Based Fixed-Time Consensus Tracking Control for Nonlinear Multiagent Systems With Directed Communication Networks

This article investigates the problem of fixed-time consensus tracking for nonlinear multiagent systems. Different from the existing studies where the follower systems are linear or pure integrator-type systems, in this article, the follower systems have completely unknown nonlinear functions and time-varying disturbances. Within this framework, a fixed-time observer-based distributed control strategy is proposed to realize the consensus tracking. First, a distributed fixed-time observer is designed for each follower to estimate the leader's state under directed networks. Then, based on the estimate, a fixed-time tracking control protocol is developed where novel approximation and estimation schemes are designed to tackle the nonlinear functions and disturbances. Furthermore, under the proposed control strategy, it is proved that the tracking errors converge into a small set near zero with a fixed-time convergence rate. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by the simulation results.