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In this paper, a planning method based on the spatiotemporal variable-step-size A* algorithm is proposed to address the problem of safe trajectory planning for incremental, wheeled, mobile robots in complex motion scenarios with multiple robots. After constructing the known conditions, the spatiotemporal variable-step-size A* algorithm is first used to perform a collision-avoiding initial spatiotemporal trajectory search, and a variable time step is utilized to ensure that the robot completes the search at the target speed. Subsequently, the trajectory is instantiated using B-spline curves in a numerical optimization considering constraints to generate the final smooth trajectory. The results of simulation tests in a field-shaped, complex, dynamic scenario show that the proposed trajectory planning method is more applicable, and the results indicate higher efficiency compared to the traditional method in the incremental robot trajectory planning problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on studying the optimization problem of multi-agent systems (MAS) under undirected graph. To reduce the communication frequency among agents, a zero-gradient-sum (ZGS) algorithm based on dynamic event-triggered (DET) mechanism is investigated. The event-triggered condition of each agent only uses its own state information and the neighbor's state information at the previous triggering instants, without requiring continuous state information from the neighbor. In addition, the designed algorithm allows for the sampling period to be arbitrarily large. The Lyapunov method is utilized to derive the sufficient conditions that incorporate time delay and parameters. As the event is only checked at the periodic moment, zeno behavior can be directly excluded. Finally, numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the orbit tracking and formation motion problems with optimal energies and reduced computational cost. First, the orbit tracking and formation motion are decomposed into movements in the normal and tangent directions of level orbits, respectively, and simultaneously, the optimal value functions in both directions are defined. Then, to reduce the computational cost, a switching threshold event‐triggered (STET) mechanism is designed. Based on the STET mechanism, the optimal value functions are constructed to evaluate the optimal energies of orbit tracking and formation motion. Critic neural networks are then designed to approximate the optimal value functions, which yield the optimal policies along the normal and tangent directions of desired orbits, that is, a so‐called switching threshold event‐triggered critic algorithm (STET‐C). Theoretical analysis of system convergence is given in detail. Finally, two comparison simulations are given. The former intends to verify the optimal energy of STET‐C compared to the feedback controllers. The latter shows that STET‐C significantly reduces the computational cost in contrast with the non‐triggered actor‐critic algorithm, non‐triggered critic algorithm, and the relative threshold event‐triggered critic algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a discrete-time fractional flocking control algorithm of multi-agent systems is put forward to address the slow convergence issue of multi-agent systems. Firstly, by introducing Grünwald-Letnikov (G-L) fractional derivatives, the algorithm allows agents to utilize historical information when updating their states. Secondly, based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the convergence of the algorithm is proven. Finally, simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Comparisons are made between the proposed algorithm and other methods. The results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve the convergence speed of multi-agent systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to enhance system consensus is an important problem in the research of multi agent systems. The conventional consensus protocols usually does not consider the Hub Nodes in the topology, and the topology weight was single, which made the system easier to split. Based on the idea that key figures in the interpersonal network could promote information exchange in different communities, this paper proposed an influence network model（INM）. First, this paper proposed a Distributed Hub Node Identify algorithm（ DHNI） to distinguish between Hub Nodes and Non Hub Nodes. Distributed multi-agent system could apply DHNI. Secondly, this paper proposed a distributed Hub Node based topology reweighting algorithm （DHNTR） to quantify the influence of different nodes on their neighbors. Finally, this paper proposed an influence network-based multi-agent consensus protocol. this paper designed a common Lyapunov function and analyzed the global stability of the system. this paper proved the stability of the system in the sense of Lyapunov. Simulation results show that the protocol can enhance system consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the importance of optimization in various fields such as statistics, biology, finance, economics, and control. It highlights the advancements made in optimization theory and methods, including first-order methods and augmented Lagrangian methods. The document also introduces a special issue on "Symmetry in Optimization Theory, Algorithms and Applications," which features five papers on topics such as ensemble learning, ant colony system algorithms, subspace algorithms, consensus problems in multi-agent systems, and dynamic conditional correlation models. The authors express their gratitude to the contributors and reviewers of the special issue. [Extracted from the article]

This paper designs event-triggered delay compensation and disturbance attenuation control algorithms for multi-agent systems. First, through predictor-based model reduction method, an unknown large input delay can be compensated and delay-free dynamics is obtained. Based on the transformed systems, predictive descriptor observers are proposed to obtain estimated system states and sensor faults. Then, an event-triggered fault-tolerant algorithm is designed to save energy resources for communication among the agents while attenuating the disturbances. Moreover, it is validated that the systems do not exhibit Zeno behaviour using the designed event-triggering sequence. Numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of designed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In structural vibration response sensing, mobile sensors offer outstanding benefits as they are not dedicated to a certain structure; they also possess the ability to acquire dense spatial information. Currently, most of the existing literature concerning mobile sensing involves human drivers manually driving through the bridges multiple times. While self-driving automated vehicles could serve for such studies, they might entail substantial costs when applied to structural health monitoring tasks. Therefore, in order to tackle this challenge, we introduce a formation control framework that facilitates automatic multi-agent mobile sensing. Notably, our findings demonstrate that the proposed formation control algorithm can effectively control the behavior of the multi-agent systems for structural response sensing purposes based on user choice. We leverage vibration data collected by these mobile sensors to estimate the full-field vibration response of the structure, utilizing a compressive sensing algorithm in the spatial domain. The task of estimating the full-field response can be represented as a spatiotemporal response matrix completion task, wherein the suite of multi-agent mobile sensors sparsely populates some of the matrix's elements. Subsequently, we deploy the compressive sensing technique to obtain the dense full-field vibration complete response of the structure and estimate the reconstruction accuracy. Results obtained from two different formations on a simply supported bridge are presented in this paper, and the high level of accuracy in reconstruction underscores the efficacy of our proposed framework. This multi-agent mobile sensing approach showcases the significant potential for automated structural response measurement, directly applicable to health monitoring and resilience assessment objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the distributed resource allocation problem of a second-order multi-agent system with external disturbances. The global network resource equality constraint is considered. A distributed algorithm with an exponential convergence rate is proposed based on an internal model for a known bounded disturbance. By using the active disturbance approach to design a reduced-order extended state observer, the proposed algorithm is modified to reject an unknown external disturbance. Moreover, exponential convergence is achieved through the Lyapunov theory when the disturbance is constant. When the differential of the disturbance is bounded, by adjusting the control parameter of the observer, the proposed algorithm converges to an arbitrarily small neighbourhood of the optimal solution. Finally, our simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the characteristics and requirements of blockchain used in the internet of things environment, this paper analyzes the various shortcomings of the PBFT algorithm which is currently used in alliance chains widely and the general problems existing in threshold signature algorithm applied in consensus networks. It also proposes an improved consensus algorithm. Firstly, the new consensus mechanism grouped the nodes in the network, and replaces the pairwise communication of all nodes with the pairwise communication of partial nodes to reduce the communications volume. Secondly, it introduced the idea of combining public keys into the threshold signature, which reduces the communications volume and calculation greatly. Finally, it used a credit point mechanism between nodes to optimize the view switching protocol. The simulation results show that the data throughput and communication delay of the newly proposed algorithm have been significantly improved. At the same time, this paper obtains the best grouping method when the communication volume is the lowest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method to solve the optimal consensus problem for a class of discrete‐time multi‐agent systems with completely unknown dynamics. Different from the classical RL‐based optimal control algorithms based on one‐step temporal difference method, a multi‐step‐based (also call n‐step) policy gradient ADP (MS‐PGADP) algorithm, which have been proved to be more efficient owing to its faster propagation of the reward, is proposed to obtain the iterative control policies. Moreover, a novel Q‐function is defined, which estimates the performance of performing an action in the current state. Then, through the Lyapunov stability theorem and functional analysis, the proof of optimality of the performance index function is given and the stability of the error system is also proved. Furthermore, the actor‐critic neural networks are used to implement the proposed method. Inspired by deep Q network, the target network is also introduced to guarantee the stability of NNs in the process of training. Finally, two simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-increasing of renewable distributed generation sources in distribution networks, as well as increasing network size, have faced agent-based protection schemes with a heavy communicational load. Accordingly, despite the fast and reliable nature of multi-agent systems, they have the possibility of improper performance, especially in centralized protection systems. This paper presents an intelligent self-healing method that has the ability to replace common multi-agent systems during fault conditions. Therefore, protection tasks are performed in a single control level, without dependence on higher communicational levels, to clear the fault. Decentralized operation of this structure is provided by using intelligent electronic devices and distributed communications. In this way, the proposed scheme is described with high-speed peer-to-peer communication capability using the IEC-61850 GOOSE protocol. Then, a penetration-free algorithm, without the help of a central controller, is provided by using GOOSE message capabilities, to prevent any electricity interruption due to insufficient protection settings. Finally, by planning different scenarios and simulating a practical distribution network via ETAP software, the accuracy of the proposed algorithm has been proven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Distributed optimization algorithms have various advantages and wide applications, while the distributed nature also makes them flimsy in the face of external attacks. In this paper two Byzantine attack models are designed, in which the edge attack model is seldom considered before. A resilient distributed consensus algorithm based on the trusted nodes and edges is proposed to defend against the two attack models. The agreement and optimality of the proposed consensus algorithm are guaranteed with theoretical analysis. The simulation results and comparison experiments verify the proposed algorithm to be more effective than the compared one. In the perspective of attackers, which attack model is more recommended is also analysed based on the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the high infectivity of COVID-19, it is essential to detect the close contacts of patients as soon as possible to contain the outbreak of the epidemic. However, due to the level of technological development, the current methods and research on contact detection require manual participation. This paper proposes a future oriented automation method, which uses mobile agents loaded on sensing devices and edge coordinators to form a multi-agent system on the street. Based on perception, tracking and edge-computing, the contact probability between infected people and pedestrians is estimated. A series of simulations provide the comparison of parameters in application deployment. The simulation results show that the proposed street expropriation mode and edge-computing algorithm can further improve the detection rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the algorithms for traversal exploration and path coverage of target regions using multiple agents, enabling the efficient deployment of a set of agents to cover a complex region. First, the original multi-agent path planning problem (mCPP) is transformed into several single-agent sub-problems, by dividing the target region into multiple balanced sub-regions, which reduces the explosive combinatorial complexity; subsequently, closed-loop paths are planned in each sub-region by the rapidly exploring random trees (RRT) algorithm to ensure continuous exploration and repeated visits to each node of the target region. On this basis, we also propose two improvements: for the corner case of narrow regions, the use of geodesic distance is proposed to replace the Eulerian distance in Voronoi partitioning, and the iterations for balanced partitioning can be reduced by more than one order of magnitude; the Dijkstra algorithm is introduced to assign a smaller weight to the path cost when the geodesic direction changes, which makes the region division more "cohesive", thus greatly reducing the number of turns in the path and making it more robust. The final optimization algorithm ensures the following characteristics: complete coverage of the target area, wide applicability of multiple area shapes, reasonable distribution of exploration tasks, minimum average waiting time, and sustainable exploration without any preparation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a line-following approach to study the longitudinal and lateral problems in vehicle platooning. Under this setup, we assume that inter-vehicle distance sensing is unreliable and propose a cooperative control strategy to render the platoon less vulnerable to these sensing difficulties. The proposed control scheme uses the velocity of the predecessor vehicle, communicated through a Vehicle-to-Vehicle technology, to avoid significant oscillations in the local speed provoked by tracking using unreliable local distance measurements. We implement the proposed control algorithm in the RUPU platform, a low-cost experimental platform with wireless communication interfaces that enable the implementation of cooperative control schemes for mobile agent platooning. The experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed cooperative control scheme in maintaining a suitable performance even when subject to temporal distortions in local measurements, which, in the considered experimental setup, arise from losing the line-of-sight of the local sensors in paths with closed curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the development of an adaptive cooperative control scheme for the consensus of uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems subjected to uncertain time-varying control direction, disturbances, and dead-zone nonlinearity. The dead-zone nonlinearity is described by an uncertain nonlinear function of the control input which can represent a wide class of practical input nonlinearities. It is assumed that no prior knowledge about the uncertain nonlinearities of agents, disturbances, dead-zone parameters, magnitude and sign of the control gain is available. In this paper, a Nussbaum function is used to deal with the unknown time-varying control directions problem and a disturbance-like term in the dead-zone description is approximated by an adaptive TSK-type fuzzy system. Then, by using the dynamic surface control approach and radial-basis function neural network, an adaptive distributed controller is designed for each follower agent. Stability analysis shows that all signals of the closed-loop multi-agent system are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded and the consensus error can be made arbitrary small by the proper selection of design parameters. Simulation and comparison results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost all systems are inevitably subject to various uncertainties or disturbances from the external environment in practical applications. Taking these factors into consideration, in this paper a distributed algorithm with state noise and gradient disturbance is proposed for solving distributed optimization problem with closed convex set constraint based on multi-agent system under weight-balanced graph. Moreover, based on the gradient tracking and projection methods, the proposed distributed algorithm with gradient tracking can improve the convergence rate by introducing a projection error term and an auxiliary parameter. In contrast to some existing constrained distributed gradient algorithms, the proposed one can make the convergence faster and enhance the performance of convergence. The proposed algorithm is illustrated with two simulation examples to show its effectiveness and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of path finding by an agent is one of the basic tasks and is of great practical importance. As a rule, this is an optimization task that is solved in the space of the state graph in order to minimize the length of the path. Such a task becomes more difficult and becomes even more popular if it is solved on the basis of one graph space by several agents. In this case, another practically important optimization parameter appears, which is expressed by the number of conflicts between agents. Such an abstract formulation of the task has numerous variants of formalization and a large number of approaches to its solution. In this paper, the main element of the approach is the application of the classic Dijkstra algorithm, which is executed sequentially by each agent. When finding the shortest route, each agent modifies the graph space in such a way as to reduce the probability of conflicts with subsequent agents. This approach is original and a number of computational experiments were performed to verify it using software developed for this purpose. The experiments that were conducted demonstrate the adequate behavior of the main algorithm. The work analyzes the limitations inherent in the proposed approach within the framework of the abstract formulation of the task. The directions of further development of the basic approach have been determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The on-demand transport (ODT) systems have developed worldwide as they have significant social, environmental, and economic benefits. Even with those benefits, it's still important to gain popular acceptance. The acceptance key is the reactivity of the system in providing fast and reliable solutions whilst respecting vehicles' and clients' constraints. This paper presents a decentralized multi-agent approach to model and solve the ODT problem in a static road network. The agents interact with each other using the A* algorithm to find an optimal solution for each transport demand. The optimal solution is expressed by the fastest trajectory taken by the cheapest vehicles. We utilize factual data from a Lebanese city to do experiments evaluating the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the distributed smooth optimisation problem of multi-agent systems over undirected connected communication topologies. The objective is to minimise the global objective function, which is the sum of local private objective functions, by exchanging and computing local information among each agent or with its neighbourhoods. To avoid continuous communication among agents and reducing communication overheads, we propose an event-triggered distributed optimisation algorithm based on a proportional-integral control strategy. We first show that the developed algorithm does not exhibit Zeno behaviour. Then, it is shown that the proposed algorithm exponentially converges to an exact global minimiser under the restricted secant inequality condition. This condition admits a more general class of the global objective function since it does not require the convexity of the global objective function and the global minimisers are not required to be unique. Theoretical results are illustrated by numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a class of multi-agent flocking control algorithms are contrived, which can specify communication networking, inter-agent distance and position-pattern subgrouping for second-order particle multi-agent systems, by embedding Olfati-Saber's algorithm with what we call the topological specification matrices/vectors. In other words, by equipping Olfati-Saber's algorithms with more weighting factors, the steady-state formation behaviours in a concerned multi-agent system can be manoeuvered while collision-free flocking is induced. More specifically, we create novel collective potential functions with the topological specification matrices/vectors to evaluate multi-agent dynamics and achieve the expected steady-state features in terms of graph connectivity, distance keeping, position-pattern-related subgrouping and obstacle avoidance. Moreover, formation convergence can be improved by integral specification of position difference. Numerical simulations well demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with optimal consensus problems of a general heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent system. A novel filter is proposed for each agent by integrating local gradients with neighboring output information. Using this filter and introducing an appropriate auxiliary variable, the event-triggered control algorithm is obtained within the framework of the prescribed performance control. One of the remarkable properties of the proposed algorithm is that it can save resources by updating control signals only when necessary rather than periodically while achieving optimal consensus. Theoretical and simulation verifications of the algorithm without the Zeno behavior are carefully studied. Instructions are also presented for control parameter selection to keep the residual errors as small as desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the current algorithms for solving distributed online optimization problems are based on the first-order method, which are simple in computation but slow in convergence. Newton's algorithm with fast convergence speed needs to calculate the Hessian matrix and its inverse, leading to computationally complex. A distributed online optimization algorithm based on Newton's step is proposed in this paper, which constructs a positive definite matrix by using the first-order information of the objective function to replace the inverse of the Hessian matrix in Newton's method. The convergence of the algorithm is proved theoretically and the regret bound of the algorithm is obtained. Finally, numerical experiments are used to verify the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has an efficient performance on practical problems, compared to several existing gradient descent algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the data-driven consensus tracking problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems. All of the heterogeneous dynamics, disturbances and measurement noises are considered for the output tracking consensus of nonlinear multi-agent network under a data-driven scheme. A dynamic linearisation method is introduced to deal with the nonlinear nonaffine structures of the agents and a heterogeneous linear data model for the agent is obtained due to the heterogeneous dynamics of the agent itself. On this basis, a distributed model-free adaptive predictive control (DMFAPC) algorithm is constructed by the use of consensus errors and the robustness analysis is conducted in the presence of disturbances. Further, the results are modified by using measured outputs to replace the system outputs, and thus a measured output-based DMFAPC is presented to deal with the omnipresent measurement noises in practical applications. The two proposed DMFAPC methods are data driven since no mechanistic model information is required wherein. And thus, no unmodelled dynamics affects the consensus performance. Instead, they can improve the control performance by utilising additional predictive information. The two proposed DMFAPC methods are verified using numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the measured input–output data sequences with pinning gain are proposed via the topology of multi-agent systems (MAS), where the requirement of reinforcement learning algorithm on internal state is avoided by pinning gain and the measured data of leader and neighbors. Besides, a data-based tracking state is given, which can be applied to MAS with different control matrices. According to the sequences and tracking state, a distributed control policy and corresponding reinforcement learning algorithm are proposed for the output synchronization. The proposed algorithm overcomes the shortcoming that previous algorithms can not be applied to MAS with different control matrices in the absence of model information and full-state vector. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed algorithm is verified by simulation examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a convex optimisation problem with a common set of constraints in the framework of multi-agent systems. Each agent only exchanges information with its neighbours and collaboratively searches for the optimal solution of the global function. To this addressed problem, a distributed multi-step subgradient projection algorithm is developed, where an adaptive event-triggering protocol is designed to govern the information exchange. It is disclosed that the state of each agent representing the estimate of the optimal solution asymptotically converges to one of the optimal solutions under suitably chosen stepsizes and momentum parameters. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm has better convergence performance than the standard event-triggered subgradient projection algorithm. In addition, the communication frequency between agents can be effectively reduced to save communication resource consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (F-DCOPs) are a constraint processing framework for continuous variables in the multi-agent system. Particle swarm optimization-based F-DCOP (PFD) is a population-based algorithm to solve F-DCOP collaboratively. Although it can significantly reduce the computational overhead and memory requirements, its solution depends on the decision of root agent in the Breadth First Search (BFS) pseudo-tree and it is easy to fall into local optimum. To solve the above problems, this paper designed an improved PFD algorithm with Local Decision named PFD-LD, which effectively reduces the dependence on root agent through local decision. In addition, a mutation operator is used to avoid falling into local optimum. It is proved that PFD-LD is an anytime algorithm and local decision can expand the search of the solution space. Finally, the extensive experiments based on four types of benchmark problems show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art F-DCOP solving algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable energies take increasing proportion in the power systems due to the "net-zero emission" goal, and the future trend is to make the new type power systems operate safely and stably while maintaining low carbon and economic efficiency. This paper proposes a novel smart generation system (SGS) architecture and a smart generation system consensus (SGSC) algorithm from the perspective of automatic generation control. The SGS is based on stratified sequencing method and multi-agent theory, which describes the dynamic and optimal generation dispatch of the units as a hierarchical decentralized multiple objectives programming problem. Further, the SGSC is proposed based on distributed Newton algorithm and leaderless consensus algorithm to solve the security performance degradation caused by decentralization. All the units are configured in parallel with the designed communication topology to achieve dispatch decentralization, thus ensuring low-carbon, economical and safe operation of the new type power system. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified on a multi-layer, multi-zone smart generation system model with a high proportion of sustainable energies from macro and micro aspects. Different control methods are also used for performance comparison on the two-area load frequency control model with lower regulation costs and lower carbon emissions achievement. • A decentralized control Architecture of autonomous SGS is developed. • A novel SGSC algorithm is proposed for dynamic generation command optimization of AGC. • The proposed algorithm not only minimizes regulation costs and carbon emissions but also ensures the stability of system operations, even during communication failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) can be found in a wide variety of applications, including industrial systems, transportation, software systems and more. In such systems, agents may experience faults that affect the performance of the whole system. However, faulty agents might not consistently experience their fault, but rather in certain conditions. For example, a robot with a faulty rotating mechanism will appear healthy if it is tasked to only move in a straight line. Those faults are called Intermittent Faults. Such faults may cause the entire system to fail, but not always. Previous work proposed diagnosis algorithms for MAS, assuming faulty agents persistently behave abnormally. To the best of our knowledge, intermittent faults in MAS have not been concretely explored. In this paper we formally present a novel problem called Diagnosis of Intermittent Faults in Multi-Agent Systems (DIFMAS): a group of agents are observed across multiple runs. In each run, the success/failure of the agents and the system is observed, aiming to explain all the failed runs by diagnosing which agent(s) are faulty. The contributions of this paper are: (1) formalizing DIFMAS as a Model-Based Diagnosis problem, (2) solving it by presenting a Spectrum-Based Fault Localization (SFL) based method, called Multi-Run SFL-based Diagnosis Algorithm (MRSD). Experiments demonstrate that MRSD 's outperforms competing SFL-based algorithms. Moreover, the algorithm's performance increases if planned interactions are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of the continuous development of the Internet of Things, cloud computing has been applied in many fields, how to guarantee the quality of service, such as low latency, high bandwidth, high reliability etc., has become a challenging problem. This paper proposes a method to model and optimize reliability for microservice‐based cloud applications using multi‐agent system (MAS), thus maximizing the reliability of cloud computing and dynamically scheduling microservices to minimize the delay within the budget. Firstly, a dynamic microservice scheduling scheme is proposed to provide efficient computing services by using MAS. A hierarchical cloud computing model is formed by predicated Petri net (PrT net) and the properties of constructed model are analysed. Secondly, agents have been utilized to describe the essential characteristics of microservice scheduling process in the cloud applications. The partial critical path (PCP) aims to maximize the reliability of cloud applications under the limitation of budget and meet the user‐defined deadline. Finally, the proposed PCPRO algorithm has been applied to cloud environment, which is suitable for different scientific workflows in the cloud computing environment. The effectiveness of this method is verified by simulation, the experiment results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A continuous-time distributed algorithm based on multi-agent systems is proposed to solve the convex nonsmooth optimization with globally coupled constraints in this paper. Firstly, the relationship of equivalence between the equilibrium and the optimal solution of the system is proved by using the properties of projection operator and saddle point. In addition, the stability of the algorithm is analyzed by means of Lie derivative and set-valued LaSalle's invariance principle. In particular, the trajectory of the proposed algorithm from any initial point can converge to the global optimal solution. Finally, the effectiveness of the designed algorithm is verified by numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of big data and artificial intelligence, distributed optimization has emerged as an indispensable tool for solving large-scale problems. In particular, the multi-agent system based on distributed information processing can be elaborately designed for distributed optimization, in which the agents collaboratively minimize a global objective function made up of a sum of local objective cost functions subject to some local and/or global constraints. Inspired by the applications involving resource allocation, machine learning, power systems, sensor networks and cloud computing, a variety of distributed optimization models and algorithms have been investigated and developed. The optimization models include unconstrained and constrained problems in continuous and discontinuous systems with undirected and directed communication topology graphs. The constraints include bounded constraint, separable and inseparable equality and inequality constraints. Meanwhile, in distributed algorithms, every agent executes its local computation and updating on basis of its own data information and that exchanging with its neighboring agents by means of the underlying communication networks, in order to deal with the optimization problems in a distributed way. This paper is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of extant distributed models and algorithms for distributed optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local search algorithms are widely applied in solving large-scale distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP). Distributed stochastic algorithm (DSA) is a typical local search algorithm to solve DCOP. However, DSA has some drawbacks including easily falling into local optima and the unfairness of assignment choice. This paper presents a novel local search algorithm named VLSs to solve the issues. In VLSs, sampling according to the probability corresponding to assignment is introduced to enable each agent to choose other promising values. Besides, each agent alternately performs a greedy choice among multiple parallel solutions to reduce the chance of falling into local optima and a variance adjustment mechanism to guide the search into a relatively good initial solution in a periodic manner. We give the proof of variance adjustment mechanism rationality and theoretical explanation of impact of greed among multiple parallel solutions. The experimental results show the superiority of VLSs over state-of-the-art DCOP algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a class of distributed event-triggered algorithms that solve the average consensus problem in multi-agent systems. By designing events such that a specifically chosen Lyapunov function is monotonically decreasing, event-triggered algorithms succeed in reducing communications among agents while still ensuring that the entire system converges to the desired state. However, depending on the chosen Lyapunov function the transient behaviours can be very different. Moreover, performance requirements also vary from application to application. Consequently, we are instead interested in considering a class of Lyapunov functions such that each Lyapunov function produces a different event-triggered coordination algorithm to solve the multi-agent average consensus problem. The proposed class of algorithms all guarantee exponential convergence of the resulting system and exclusion of Zeno behaviours. This allows us to easily implement different algorithms that all guarantee correctness to meet varying performance needs. We show that our findings can be applied to the practical clock synchronisation problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and further corroborate their effectiveness with simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a distributed economic dispatch algorithm based on event-triggered and fixed-time consensus is proposed for optimal dispatching among generators in smart grid. Aiming to quickly achieve economic dispatch in distributed smart grid and significantly reduce the frequency of communication between generators, the algorithm can address the supply–demand balance between the generation side and the consumption side, as well as the capacity constraints of the generators. Different from the relevant work, the proposed incremental cost can converge in fixed-time and the settling time is independent of the initial state of the generators. It will provide more flexibility for the system. Meanwhile, a fully distributed event-triggered strategy is adopted, which can reduce the interactive information between generators and avoid the waste of communication resources. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is robust to the time-varying communication network topology. Finally, several examples are presented that validate the effectiveness of the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generalized eigenvalue problem (GEP) plays a significant role in signal processing and machine learning. This paper proposes a consensus-based distributed algorithm for GEP in multi-agent systems, where the data are distributively stored across agents. The distributed GEP is reformulated as a consensus optimization, but the presence of its quadratic inseparable constraint makes the considered problem more challenging. To deal with it, a sequential method combined with the alternating direction method of multipliers is proposed, which requires communication between multiple pairs of nodes. Theoretical analysis shows the proposed algorithm will converge to the set of stationary solutions. And the numerical experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets validate that the approximated solution is competitive to the centered results. • Reformulation of consensus-based distributed Generalized Eigenvalue Problem. • A sequential method to decouple the inseparable constraint. • Convergence to the set of stationary solutions under mild assumptions. • Performance of the proposed algorithm is competitive to the ground truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world of connectivity, various domains use different multi-sensor Internet of Things (IoT) and Intelligent Systems (IS) applications. These applications involve extensive interactions between thousands or millions of components in open environments, which challenges verifying their reliability and efficiency. This paper introduces the first investigation in verifying IoT applications and intelligent systems in multi-source data settings with multi-agent commitment protocols in uncertain or inconsistent environments. Specifically, we present original and efficient solutions for modeling and verifying these systems with conditional and unconditional commitment protocols under uncertain or inconsistent settings. We introduce 4v-CTL c and 4v-CTL c c , multi-valued logics of commitment for reasoning about inconsistency over these systems that expand 3v-CTL c and 3v-CTL c c for reasoning about uncertainty. Moreover, we introduce new reduction algorithms for reducing our multi-valued model checking problems to the two-valued ones. To implement these algorithms, we develop two new automatic verification tools. The first tool translates the multi-valued logics to CTL and automatically interacts with the NuSMV model checker. The second tool translates these logics to the two-valued versions, CTL c and CTL c c , and automatically interacts with the MCMAS+ model checker. We apply our verification approaches to a Smart Home, a Smart Hospital and a Smart Mortgage system with multi-source data as case studies using sets of properties, including safety, liveness and reachability. The experimental results obtained by the proposed multi-valued model checking techniques proved these techniques' high efficiency and applicability to modeling and verifying intelligent and autonomous multi-source data systems. • New multi-valued logics to reason about inconsistency in multi-source data settings. • Modeling IoT and IS applications using different multi-valued commitment logics. • New reduction-based model checking algorithms for multi-source data applications. • Implementing two new model checking tools: MCMAS-interactor and NuSMV-interactor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]