Predictive Control Methods Of Networked Multi-agent Systems

A networked multi-agent system(NMAS)is a system composed of multiple agents that interact and cooperate with each other via communication networks.During the past decade,the cooperative control of networked multi-agent systems(NMASs)has attracted the attention of many scholars.As a branch of cooperative control for networked multi-agents,the cooperative output tracking control of NMASs has been developed rapidly in various practical fields such as multiple unmanned aerial vehicle systems,intelligent transportation systems,multiple mobile robot systems,and so on.In most practical applications,however,the introduction of communication networks into NMASs inevitably brings some negative effects such as random network-induced delays,packet dropouts,packet disorders and so on.These communication constraints may severely impact the control performance of NMASs and even destroy the closed-loop stability of NMASs.For the problems with random network-induced delays and packet dropouts of NMASs,a cooperative output tracking control method is designed to realize the cooperative output tracking control of networked multi-agents.In this paper,a class of linear discrete NMASs is selected as the research object.The two communication constraint cases for NMASs,the random network-induced delays and packet dropouts in the feedback channel of single agent system,and random network-induced delays and packet dropouts in the feedback channel and the forward channel of single agent system,are considered.The corresponding compensation control schemes are designed to realize the cooperative output tracking control of networked multi-agents.The research contents of this paper are mainly divided into the following three aspects:(1)For the ideal communication case of multi-agent systems,an observer-based cooperative output tracking control method of multi-agent systems is presented.Then the stability of the closed-loop multi-agent systems is analyzed.Finally,the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed scheme are verified by numerical simulations and practical experiments.(2)For a class of linear discrete NMASs,a problem with random network-induced delays and packet dropouts in the feedback channel of single agent system is considered.Based on the control method in(1)and network predictive control method,an observer-based predictive output tracking control method of networked multi-agents is proposed.The necessary and sufficient conditions for the stability of the closed-loop NMASs are derived.Numerical simulations and practical experiments show that the proposed predictive control method can make NMASs achieve great output tracking control performance.(3)For a class of linear discrete NMASs,a problem with random network-induced delays and packet dropouts in the feedback channel and the forward channel of single agent system is considered,an observer-based cloud predictive output tracking control method of networked multi-agents is presented to realize the output tracking control of NMASs.Then the stability of the closed-loop NMASs is derived.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by numerical simulations.