Encryption-decryption-based distributed fault-tolerant consensus tracking control for multi-agent systems

Area of Science:

• Control Systems Engineering
• Networked Systems
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Multi-agent systems (MASs) face challenges in achieving consensus tracking due to actuator faults and external eavesdropping threats.
• Existing fault-tolerant control strategies may not adequately address security concerns or communication constraints in discrete-time MASs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a fault-tolerant consensus tracking (FCTC) protocol for discrete-time MASs that is robust against actuator faults and eavesdropping.
• To design a decentralized observer for estimating system states and actuator faults.
• To integrate an encryption-decryption strategy (EDS) for secure communication and fault compensation.

Main Methods:

• Modeling actuator faults using difference equations.
• Constructing decentralized observers for state and fault estimation.
• Developing a distributed active FCTC protocol incorporating encrypted state information and estimated faults via EDS.
• Deriving controller, observer, and dynamic encryption key criteria using compatible norms.

Main Results:

• The proposed FCTC protocol effectively compensates for bias and drift actuator faults.
• Secure communication is maintained, and communication congestion is alleviated.
• The strategy achieves leader-following consensus (LFC) in the presence of faults and eavesdropping.
• Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the encryption-decryption-based distributed FCTC strategy.

Conclusions:

• The developed distributed FCTC strategy enhances the resilience and security of discrete-time MASs.
• The integration of EDS with fault estimation provides a robust solution for secure consensus tracking.
• The findings contribute to the advancement of secure and reliable control for networked systems.