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This paper aims to investigate the consensus control of generic linear multi-agent systems (MASs) under directed dynamic topology. Nonnegative matrix theory, in particular the product properties of infinite row-stochastic matrices, which are widely used for multiple integrator agents, is explored to deal with the convergence analysis of generic linear MASs. It is finally shown that the exponential consensus can be reached under very relaxed conditions, i.e., the directed interaction topology is only required to be repeatedly jointly rooted and the exponentially unstable mode of each individual system is weak enough. Moreover, a least convergence rate and a bound for the unstable mode of the individual agent system, both of which are independent of the switching mode, can be explicitly specified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers mainly the leader-following consensus for multiple agents with general linear system dynamics under switching topologies. Three different settings are systematically considered. We first consider the setting that the underlying interaction topologies switch arbitrarily among the possible weakly connected digraphs and then extend it to a more general setting that the weak connectivity of the interaction topologies is kept for some disconnected time intervals with short length due to the communication constraints among agents. Exponentially, consensus control is proved to be achieved, and the convergence rate can be specified as well for both settings in spite of the relaxed conditions on the system dynamics of each individual agent which even allow that each agent has exponentially unstable mode, while for the last case where the weak connectivity is only maintained on the joint of the interaction topologies, consensus control is proved to be achieved when the system matrix of each individual agent satisfies certain stability conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By the distributed averaging problem is meant the problem of computing the average value of a set of numbers possessed by the agents in a distributed network using only communication between neighboring agents. Gossiping is a well-known approach to the problem which seeks to iteratively arrive at a solution by allowing each agent to interchange information with at most one neighbor at each iterative step. Crafting a gossiping protocol which accomplishes this is challenging because gossiping is an inherently collaborative process which can lead to deadlocks unless careful precautions are taken to ensure that it does not. Many gossiping protocols are request-based which means simply that a gossip between two agents will occur whenever one of the two agents accepts a request to gossip placed by the other. In this paper, we present three deterministic request-based protocols. We show by example that the first can deadlock. The second is guaranteed to avoid deadlocks by exploiting the idea of local ordering together with the notion of an agent’s neighbor queue; the protocol requires the simplest queue updates, which provides an in-depth understanding of how local ordering and queue updates avoid deadlocks. It is shown that a third protocol which uses a slightly more complicated queue update rule can lead to significantly faster convergence; a worst case bound on convergence rate is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the distributed localization problem of sensor networks with mixed measurements. Each node holds a local coordinate system without a common orientation and is capable of measuring only one type of information (either distance, bearing, or relative position) to near-by nodes. Thus, three types of measurements are mixed in the sensor networks. Moreover, the communication topologies in the sensor networks may be time-varying due to unreliable communications. This paper develops a fully distributed algorithm called BCDL (Barycentric Coordinate based Distributed Localization) where each node starts from a random initial guess about its true coordinate and converges to the true coordinate via only local node interactions. The key idea in BCDL is to establish a unified linear equation constraints for the sensor coordinates by using the barycentric coordinates of each node with respect to its neighbors though the sensor nodes may have different types of measurements. Then a distributed iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the linear equations under time-varying communication networks. A necessary and sufficient graphical condition is obtained to ensure global convergence of the distributed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]