Consensus tracking for multi-agent systems subject to channel fading: a sliding mode control method

Abstract

This paper considers the consensus tracking problem of second-order multi-agent systems. The key feature in this work is that the state transmission among followers may be subject to channel fading. In order to cope with the adverse factor, this work introduces the statistical information of channel fading into the measure function on the consensus tracking errors. Meanwhile, a feasible distributed sliding mode controller is designed by means of the received fading states. And then, both the reachability and the stability of sliding mode dynamics are analysed, under which the consensus tracking for followers to the leader is attained. Finally, a numerical simulation example is provided for verifying the proposed sliding mode control scheme.

Keywords:

• Multi-agent system
• channel fading
• consensus tracking
• sliding mode control

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the NNSF (61673174) from China.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSF) (grant number 61673174) from China.

Notes on contributors

Xiaowei Gu

Xiaowei Gu received the B.S. degree in Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China, in 2018. She is currently pursuing her M.S. degree in Control Science and Engineering at East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China. Her current research areas are multi-agent systems, sliding mode control.

Tinggang Jia

Tinggang Jia received his Ph.D. degrees in Control science and engineering from the East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China, in 2012. In 1996, he joined Shanghai Electric Group, Shanghai, China, where he is currently Professor-level senior engineer and also serves as the president of Shanghai Electric Automation Group. His current research interests include nonlinear stochastic system, industrial automation ,wireless sensor networks, networked control systems. Prof. Jia is currently Shanghai excellent technology leader Plan. He serves concurrently as vice president of Chinese Association of Automation Manufacturing Technology Special Committee, and member of Process Control Special Committee in Chinese Association of Automation. Vice president of Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Association, member of China National Technical Committee for Automation Systems and Integration Standardization, and member of Strategy Steering Committee in State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology.

Yugang Niu

Yugang Niu received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in control engineering from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, in 1992 and 2001, respectively. In 2003, he joined the School of Information Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China, where he is currently a Professor. His current research interests include stochastic systems, sliding mode control, Markovian jump systems, networked control systems, wireless sensor networks, and smart grid. Prof. Niu is currently an Associate Editor of several international journals, including Information Sciences, Neurocomputing, IET Control Theory & Applications, Journal of The Franklin Institute, and International Journal of System Sciences. He is also a member of Conference Editorial Board of IEEE Control Systems Society.