Observer-based HOFA predictive cooperative control for networked multi-agent systems under time-variant communication...

Area of Science:

• Control Systems Engineering
• Networked Systems
• Robotics

Background:

• Networked multi-agent systems (NMASs) face challenges with time-variant communication constraints like delays and data loss.
• Immeasurable states in NMASs complicate cooperative control implementation.
• Existing control methods may not adequately address simultaneous state immeasurability and network uncertainties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an observer-based predictive control method for NMASs with time-variant communication constraints.
• To address immeasurable states and network uncertainties in cooperative control.
• To ensure simultaneous consensus and stability in networked high-order fully actuated multi-agent systems (NHOFAMASs).

Main Methods:

• A high-order fully actuated (HOFA) system model is adopted to describe the NMAS (NHOFAMAS).
• An observer-based HOFA predictive control (OB-HOFAPC) method is designed, incorporating a HOFA observer for state estimation.
• An incremental prediction model (IPM) in HOFA form is developed using a Diophantine equation for multi-step output predictions.

Main Results:

• The OB-HOFAPC method effectively estimates immeasurable states and compensates for communication constraints in real-time.
• Multi-step output predictions optimize cooperative control performance.
• A sufficient and necessary criterion for analyzing simultaneous consensus and stability in closed-loop NHOFAMASs is established.

Conclusions:

• The proposed OB-HOFAPC method provides a robust solution for cooperative control of NMASs under complex network conditions.
• The method demonstrates capability and advantages through numerical simulations and experimental verification.
• This research contributes to advancing control strategies for networked systems with communication uncertainties.