Distributed Control for Leader-Following Consensus Problem of Second-Order Multi-Agent Systems and Its Application to Motion Synchronization

A Novel Decoupled Synchronous Control Method for Multiple Autonomous Unmanned Linear Systems: Bounded L2-Gain for Coupling Attenuation

This paper addresses the distributed optimal decoupling synchronous control of multiple autonomous unmanned linear systems (MAUS) subject to complex network dynamic coupling. The leader–follower mechanism based on neighborhood error dynamics is established and the network coupling term is regarded as the external disturbance to realize the decoupling cooperative control of each agent. The Bounded L2-Gain problem for the network coupling term is formulated into a multi-player zero-sum differential game. It is shown that the solution to the multi-player zero-sum differential game requires the solution to coupled Hamilton–Jacobi (HJ) equations. The coupled HJ equations are transformed into an algebraic Riccati equation (ARE), which can be solved to obtain the Nash equilibrium of a multi-player zero-sum game. It is shown that the bounded L2-Gain for coupling attenuation can be realized by applying the zero-sum game solution as the control protocol and the ultimately uniform boundedness (UUB) of a local neighborhood error vector under conservative conditions is proved. A simulation example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Distributed Adaptive Neural Network Control Applied to a Formation Tracking of a Group of Low-Cost Underwater Drones in Hazardous Environments

This paper addresses a formation tracking problem of multiple low-cost underwater drones by implementing distributed adaptive neural network control (DANNC). It is based on a leader-follower architecture to operate in hazardous environments. First, unknown parameters of underwater vehicle dynamics, which are important requirements for real-world applications, are approximated by a neural network using a radial basis function. More specifically, those parameters are only calculated by local information, which can be obtained by an on-board camera without using an external positioning system. Secondly, a potential function is employed to ensure there is no collision between the underwater drones. We then propose a desired configuration of a group of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) as a time-variant function so that they can quickly change their shape between them to facilitate the crossing in a narrow area. Finally, three UUVs, based on a robot operating system (ROS) platform, are used to emphasize the realistic low-cost aspect of underwater drones. The proposed approach is validated by evaluating in different experimental scenarios.