This paper investigates a distributed formation tracking control law for large-scale networks of mechanical systems. In particular, the formation network is represented by a directed communication graph with leaders and followers, where each agent is described as a port-Hamiltonian system with a constant mass matrix. Moreover, we adopt a distributed parameter approach to prove the scalable asymptotic stability of the network formation, i.e., the scalability with respect to the network size and the specific formation preservation. A simulation case illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.
We consider the problem of designing distributed controllers to stabilize a class of networked systems, where each subsystem is dissipative and designs a reinforcement learning based local controller to maximize an individual cumulative reward function. We develop an approach that enforces dissipativity conditions on these local controllers at each subsystem to guarantee stability of the entire networked system. The proposed approach is illustrated on a DC microgrid example, where the objective is maintain voltage stability of the network using local distributed controllers at each generation …
An optimal control law for networked control systems with a discrete-time linear time-invariant (LTI) system as plant and networks between sensor and controller as well as between controller and actuator is proposed. This controller is designed by solving an optimization problem that is a generalization of the optimization problem used to obtain the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) for deterministic discrete-time LTI systems. The networks are represented by random delays and drop outs of transmitted data packets.
This paper studies the distributed L2-gain control problem for continuous-time large-scale systems under Round-Robin communication protocol. In this protocol, each sub-controller obtains its own subsystem's state information continuously, while communicating with neighbors at discrete-time instants periodically. Distributed controllers are designed such that the closed-loop system is exponentially stable and that the prescribed L2-gain is satisfied. The design condition is obtained based on a time-delay approach and given in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, three numerical example…
Passivity based distributed tracking control of networked Euler-Lagrange systems
Jan C. Willems Center for Systems and Control, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学科学与工程学部扬C威尔姆斯系统与控制中心）；Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学科学与工程学部）
Networked microgrids with high penetration of distributed generators have ubiquitous remote information exchange, which may be exposed to various cyber security threats. This paper, for the first time, addresses a consensus problem in terms of frequency synchronisation in networked microgrids subject to multi-layer denial of service (DoS) attacks, which could simultaneously affect communication, measurement and control actuation channels. A unified notion of Persistency-of-Data-Flow (PoDF) is proposed to characterise the data unavailability in different information network links, and further q…
This paper studies the problem of distributed weighted least-squares (WLS) estimation for an interconnected linear measurement network with additive noise. Two types of measurements are considered: self measurements for individual nodes, and edge measurements for the connecting nodes. Each node in the network carries out distributed estimation by using its own measurement and information transmitted from its neighbours. We study two distributed estimation algorithms: a recently proposed distributed WLS algorithm and the so-called Gaussian Belief Propagation (BP) algorithm. We first establish t…
This paper considers the problem of characterizing the stability region of a large-scale networked system comprised of dissipative nonlinear subsystems, in a distributed and computationally tractable way. One standard approach to estimate the stability region of a general nonlinear system is to first find a Lyapunov function for the system and characterize its region of attraction as the stability region. However, classical approaches, such as sum-of-squares methods and quadratic approximation, for finding a Lyapunov function either do not scale to large systems or give very conservative estim…
Distributed Nonlinear Control of Networked Two-Wheeled Robots under Adversarial Interactions
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS)（十月中旬理工学院）；Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM)（加查马达大学）；Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB)（万隆理工学院）；University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）
Graph Neural Network-Based Distributed Optimal Control for Linear Networked Systems: An Online Distributed Training Approach
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame（电气工程系，诺丁汉大学）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology（电气与计算机工程系，史蒂文斯理工学院）
In this paper, we investigate the distributed link removal strategy for networked meta-population epidemics. In particular, a deterministic networked susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model is considered to describe the epidemic evolving process. In order to curb the spread of epidemics, we present the spectrum-based optimization problem involving the Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue of the matrix constructed by the network topology and transition rates. A modified distributed link removal strategy is developed such that it can be applied to the SIR model with heterogeneous transition rates on w…
Smart programmable microgrids (SPM) is an emerging technology for making microgrids more software-defined and less hardware-independent such that converting distributed energy resources (DERs) to networked community microgrids becomes affordable, autonomic, and secure. As one of the cornerstones of SPM, this paper pioneers a concept of software-defined operation optimization for networked microgrids, where operation objectives, grid connection, and DER participation will be defined by software and plug-and-play, and can be quickly reconfigured, based on the development of modularized and tight…
We investigate the problem of stabilizing an unknown networked linear system under communication constraints and adversarial disturbances. We propose the first provably stabilizing algorithm for the problem. The algorithm uses a distributed version of nested convex body chasing to maintain a consistent estimate of the network dynamics and applies system level synthesis to determine a distributed controller based on this estimated model. Our approach avoids the need for system identification and accommodates a broad class of communication delay while being fully distributed and scaling favorabl…
Nonlinear-Gain Distributed Zeroth-Order Optimization for Networked Black-Box Control
School of Artificial Intelligence, Hubei University（湖北大学人工智能学院）；School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University（武汉大学经济与管理学院）；School of Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学电气工程学院）；Baidu（百度）
We propose a distributed (single) target tracking scheme based on networked estimation and consensus algorithms over static sensor networks. The tracking part is based on linear time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) measurement proposed in our previous works. This paper, in particular, develops delay-tolerant distributed filtering solutions over sparse data-transmission networks. We assume general arbitrary heterogeneous delays at different links. This may occur in many realistic large-scale applications where the data-sharing between different nodes is subject to latency due to communication-reso…
Near-Optimal Distributed Linear-Quadratic Regulator for Networked Systems
Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室数学与计算机科学部）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University（卡内基梅隆大学电气与计算机工程系）；Department of Statistics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学统计系）
This paper investigates the distributed event-triggered control problem for a class of uncertain pure-feedback nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with polluted feedback. Under the setting of event-triggered control, substantial challenges exist in both control design and stability analysis for systems in more general non-affine pure-feedback forms wherein all state variables are not directly and continuously available or even polluted due to sensor failures, and thus far very limited results are available in literature. In this work, a nominal control strategy under regular state feedback is…
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University（弗吉尼亚理工学院暨州立大学）
The problem of communicating sensor measurements over shared networks is prevalent in many modern large-scale distributed systems such as cyber-physical systems, wireless sensor networks, and the internet of things. Due to bandwidth constraints, the system designer must jointly design decentralized medium access transmission and estimation policies that accommodate a very large number of devices in extremely contested environments such that the collection of all observations is reproduced at the destination with the best possible fidelity. We formulate a remote estimation problem in the mean-f…
COIN-GP: Cooperative Online Learning in Networked Distributed Systems with Partial Measurements via Gaussian Process Regression
Technical University of Munich（慕尼黑工业大学）；The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)（香港科技大学（广州））；Tongji University（同济大学）；Shanghai Yangzhi Rehabilitation Hospital（上海市养志康复医院）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；The Hong Kong Polytechnic University（香港理工大学）
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；University of Nevada, Reno（内华达大学里诺分校）
Distributed algorithms for both discrete-time and continuous-time linearly solvable optimal control (LSOC) problems of networked multi-agent systems (MASs) are investigated in this paper. A distributed framework is proposed to partition the optimal control problem of a networked MAS into several local optimal control problems in factorial subsystems, such that each (central) agent behaves optimally to minimize the joint cost function of a subsystem that comprises a central agent and its neighboring agents, and the local control actions (policies) only rely on the knowledge of local observation…
This paper aims to create a secure environment for networked control systems composed of multiple dynamic entities and computational control units via networking, in the presence of disclosure attacks. In particular, we consider the situation where some dynamic entities or control units are vulnerable to attacks and can become malicious. Our objective is to ensure that the input and output data of the benign entities are protected from the malicious entities as well as protected when they are transferred over the networks in a distributed environment. Both these security requirements are achie…
Cloud computing and distributed computing are becoming ubiquitous in many modern control systems such as smart grids, building automation, robot swarms or intelligent transportation systems. Compared to "isolated" control systems, the advantages of cloud-based and distributed control systems are, in particular, resource pooling and outsourcing, rapid scalability, and high performance. However, these capabilities do not come without risks. In fact, the involved communication and processing of sensitive data via public networks and on third-party platforms promote, among other cyberthreats, eave…
A novel distributed control law for consensus of networked double integrator systems with biased measurements is developed in this article. The agents measure relative positions over a time-varying, undirected graph with an unknown and constant sensor bias corrupting the measurements. An adaptive control law is derived using Lyapunov methods to estimate the individual sensor biases accurately. The proposed algorithm ensures that position consensus is achieved exponentially in addition to bias estimation. The results leverage recent advances in collective initial excitation based results in ada…
This paper considers the fixed-time control problem of a multi-agent system composed of a class of Euler-Lagrange dynamics with parametric uncertainty and a dynamic leader under a directed communication network. A distributed fixed-time observer is first proposed to estimate the desired trajectory and then a fixed-time controller is constructed by transforming uncertain Euler-Lagrange systems into second-order systems and utilizing the backstepping design procedure. The overall design guarantees that the synchronization errors converge to zero in a prescribed time independent of initial condit…
