Broadcast Control Mechanism for Positional Consensus in Multiagent Systems

Das, Kaushik and Ghose, Debasish (2015) Broadcast Control Mechanism for Positional Consensus in Multiagent Systems. In: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, 23 (5). pp. 1807-1826.

PDF IEEE_Trn_on_Con_Sys_Tec_23-5_1807_2015.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (5MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

In this paper, a strategy for controlling a group of agents to achieve positional consensus is presented. The problem is constrained by the requirement that every agent must be given the same control input through a broadcast communication mechanism. Although the control command is computed using state information in a global framework, the control input is implemented by the agents in a local coordinate frame. We propose a novel linear programming (LP) formulation that is computationally less intensive than earlier proposed methods. Moreover, a random perturbation input in the control command that helps the agents to come close to each other even for a large number of agents, which was not possible with an existing strategy in the literature, is introduced. The method is extended to achieve positional consensus at a prespecified location. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated through simulation results. A comparison between the LP approach and the existing second-order cone programming-based approach is also presented. The algorithm was successfully implemented on a robotic platform with three robots.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
Publisher:	IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 445 HOES LANE, PISCATAWAY, NJ 08855-4141 USA
Keywords:	Broadcast control; consensus; ensemble control; LEGO robots; linear programming (LP); multiagent system
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Aerospace Engineering(Formerly Aeronautical Engineering)
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2015 04:29
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2015 04:29
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/52314

Actions (login required)

View Item