Recent advances in distributed adaptive consensus control of uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems

Abstract

So far, distributed adaptive consensus problems for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems have not yet been extensively studied. Compared with centralised adaptive control, some new challenges need to be well addressed, for examples, (i) how to reach asymptotically consensus tracking with directed topology condition, by using totally distributed adaptive control strategies; (ii) how to ensure globally uniform boundedness of closed-loop systems while achieving leaderless consensus with semi-positive definite Laplacian matrix; (iii) how to maintain system performance while effectively reducing the communication burden among connected agents. This paper is mainly devoted to report some recent advances in distributed adaptive consensus control. Besides, some interesting research topics which are worthy of further investigation will also be discussed.

Keywords:

• Distributed adaptive control
• consensus
• nonlinear multi-agent systems
• uncertainties

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2018AAA0101100] and National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 61973017, 61673035].

Notes on contributors

Wei Wang

Wei Wang received her B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering and Automation from Beihang University (China) in 2005, M.Sc. degree in Radio Frequency Communication Systems with Distinction from University of Southampton (UK) in 2006 and Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) in 2011. From January 2012 to June 2015, she was a Lecturer with the Department of Automation at Tsinghua University, China. Currently, she is an Associate Professor with the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering at Beihang University and supported by BUAA Young Talent Recruitment Program. Her research interests include adaptive control of uncertain systems, distributed cooperative control of multi-agent systems, fault tolerant control, secure control of cyber-physical systems, and flight control systems. Wei Wang is the recipient of Zhang Si-Ying Outstanding Youth Paper Award in 2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference.

Jiang Long

Jiang Long received the B.Eng. degree in school of aviation automation from the Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China in 2015. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in control theory and control engineering at Beihang University, Beijing, China. His research interests include adaptive control of uncertain systems, distributed cooperative control of multi-agent systems, event-triggered control of multi-agent systems.

Changyun Wen

Changyun Wen received the B.Eng. degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China, in 1983 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia in 1990. From August 1989 to August 1991, he was a Research Associate and then Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. Since August 1991, he has been with School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is currently a Full Professor. His main research activities are in the areas of control systems and applications, autonomous robotic system, intelligent power management system, smart grids, cyber-physical systems, complex systems and networks, and so on. He is a Fellow of IEEE, was a member of IEEE Fellow Committee from January 2011 to December 2013 and a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Control Systems Society from February 2010 to February 2013. Prof. Wen is an Associate Editor of a number of journals including Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and IEEE Control Systems Magazine. He is the Executive Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Control and Decision. He served the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control as an Associate Editor from January 2000 to December 2002. He has been actively involved in organising international conferences playing the roles of General Chair, General Co-Chair, Technical Program Committee Chair, Program Committee Member, General Advisor, Publicity Chair and so on. He was the recipient of a number of awards, including the Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award from the Institution of Engineers, Singapore in 2005, and the Best Paper Award of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics from the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society in 2017.

Jiangshuai Huang

Jiangshuai Huang received his B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees from School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China in July 2007 and August 2009, respectively, and Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University in 2015. He was a Research Fellow in the Department of Electricity and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore from August 2014 to September 2016. He is currently with the School of Automation, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China. His research interests include adaptive control, nonlinear systems control, underactuated mechanical system control and multi-agent system control.