Secure output consensus for multi-agent systems under edge-based event-trigger against denial-of-service

Area of Science:

• Control Systems Engineering
• Networked Systems Security
• Distributed Artificial Intelligence

Background:

• Heterogeneous multi-agent systems face challenges in achieving consensus, especially under cyber-attacks.
• Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks disrupt communication, leading to data loss and potential instability.
• Existing event-triggered schemes may not effectively handle DoS attacks or prevent Zeno behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a secure output consensus strategy for heterogeneous multi-agent systems under DoS attacks.
• To design a novel edge-based event-triggered scheme resilient to DoS attacks.
• To ensure system stability and preserve output consensus despite communication disruptions.

Main Methods:

• A hold-input controller update strategy is employed without explicit attack detection.
• A novel edge-based event-triggered scheme is proposed, considering the attack's tolerable duration.
• Switched system theory is utilized to analyze and guarantee output consensus.

Main Results:

• The proposed event-triggered scheme effectively avoids continuous communication and Zeno behavior.
• Output consensus is successfully preserved in the presence of DoS attacks.
• The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through a practical example.

Conclusions:

• The developed secure output consensus strategy is effective for heterogeneous multi-agent systems under DoS attacks.
• The novel event-triggered scheme provides a robust solution for maintaining system performance and stability.
• This research contributes to the security and reliability of distributed systems in adversarial environments.