Multi-vehicle consensus with a time-varying reference state

• Published in: Systems & control letters Vol. 56; no. 7; pp. 474 - 483
• Main Author: Ren, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adaptative systems; Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Consensus seeking; Control theory. Systems; Cooperative control; Coordination; Exact sciences and technology; Multi-vehicle systems; Coordination; Consensus seeking; Cooperative control; Multi-vehicle systems; Time varying system; Multiagent system; Cooperation; Non linear model; Distributed control; Adaptive control; Formation; Consensus
• ISSN: 0167-6911; 1872-7956
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sysconle.2007.01.002

In this paper, we study the consensus problem in multi-vehicle systems, where the information states of all vehicles approach a time-varying reference state under the condition that only a portion of the vehicles (e.g., the unique team leader) have access to the reference state and the portion of the vehicles might not have a directed path to all of the other vehicles in the team. We first analyze a consensus algorithm with a constant reference state using graph theoretical tools. We then propose consensus algorithms with a time-varying reference state and show necessary and sufficient conditions under which consensus is reached on the time-varying reference state. The time-varying reference state can be an exogenous signal or evolve according to a nonlinear model. These consensus algorithms are also extended to achieve relative state deviations among the vehicles. An application example to multi-vehicle formation control is given as a proof of concept.