This work introduces a novel two-stage distributed framework to globally estimate constant parameters in a networked system, separating shared information from local estimation. The first stage uses dynamic average consensus to aggregate agents' measurements into surrogates of centralized data. Using these surrogates, the second stage implements a local estimator to determine the parameters. By designing an appropriate consensus gain, the persistence of excitation of the regressor matrix is achieved, and thus, exponential convergence of a local Gradient Estimator (GE) is guaranteed. The framework facilitates its extension to switched network topologies, quantization, and the heterogeneous substitution of the GE with a Dynamic Regressor Extension and Mixing (DREM) estimator, which supports relaxed excitation requirements.
This paper provides a control protocol for the robust output feedback consensus of networked heterogeneous nonlinear negative-imaginary (NI) systems. Heterogeneous nonlinear output strictly negative-imaginary (OSNI) controllers are applied in positive feedback according to the network topology to achieve output feedback consensus. The main contribution of this paper is extending the previous studies of the robust output feedback consensus problem for networked heterogeneous linear NI systems to nonlinear NI systems. Output feedback consensus is proved by investigating the internal stability of…
This paper provides a protocol to address the robust output feedback consensus problem for networked heterogeneous nonlinear negative-imaginary (NI) systems with free body dynamics. We extend the definition of nonlinear NI systems to allow for systems with free body motion. A new stability result is developed for the interconnection of a nonlinear NI system and a nonlinear output strictly negative-imaginary (OSNI) system. Also, a class of networked nonlinear OSNI controllers is proposed to achieve output feedback consensus for heterogeneous networked nonlinear NI systems. We show that in this …
A robust output feedback consensus problem for networked identical nonlinear negative-imaginary (NI) systems is investigated in this paper. Output consensus is achieved by applying identical linear output strictly negative-imaginary (OSNI) controllers to all the nonlinear NI plants in positive feedback through the network topology. First, we extend the definition of nonlinear NI systems from single-input single-output (SISO) systems to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems and also extend the definition of OSNI systems to nonlinear scenarios. Asymptotic stability is proved for the clos…
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…
In bipartite consensus tracking (BCT) tasks for nonlinear multiagent systems, stochastic disturbances and actuator faults are regarded as essential factors that hamper effective controller formulation and tracking precision improvement. To address these difficulties, we design an improved finitetime performance function (FTPF) for a fuzzy fault-tolerant distributed cooperative control scheme to achieve finite-time robust precision BCT tasks for nonlinear multiagent systems. The parameter selection range of the improved FTPF is relaxed, which renders systems to achieve better transient performa…
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…
Task-Space Consensus of Networked Robotic Systems: Separation and Manipulability
Beijing Institute of Control Engineering（北京控制工程研究所）；Science and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory, Beijing Institute of Control Engineering（空间智能控制重点实验室，北京控制工程研究所）
The existing cryptosystem based approaches for privacy-preserving consensus of networked systems are usually limited to those with undirected topologies. This paper proposes a new privacy-preserving algorithm for networked systems with directed topologies to reach confidential consensus. As a prerequisite for applying the algorithm, a structural consensus problem is formulated and the solvability conditions are discussed for an explicitly constructed controller. The controller is then implemented with encryption to achieve consensus while avoiding individual's information leakage to external e…
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 models a class of hierarchical cyber-physical systems and studies its associated consensus problem. The model has a pyramid structure, which reflects many realistic natural or human systems. By analyzing the spectrum of the coupling matrix, it is shown that all nodes in the physical layer can reach a consensus based on the proposed distributed protocols without interlayer delays. Then, the result is extended to the case with interlayer delays. A necessary and sufficient condition for consensus-seeking is derived from the frequency domain perspective, which describes a permissible ra…
Conditions for detectability in distributed consensus-based observer networks
School of Engineering and IT, University of NSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy（新南威尔士大学澳大利亚国防军学院工程与信息技术学院）；Australian National University（澳大利亚国立大学）
The association of weights in a distributed consensus protocol quantify the trust that an agent has on its neighbors in a network. An important problem in such networked systems is the uncertainty in the estimation of trust between neighboring agents, coupled with the losses arising from mistakenly associating wrong amounts of trust with different neighboring agents. We introduce a probabilistic approach which uses the historical data collected in the network, to determine the level of trust between each agent. Specifically, using the finite history of the shared data between neighbors, we obt…
Time-varying hierarchical multi-agent systems are common in many applications. A well-known solution to control these systems is to use state feedback controllers that depend on the adjacency matrix to reach consensus. This solution has been applied so far to multi-agent systems with fixed or time-varying communication topologies. In this paper, we consider single-integrator multi-agent systems where only a subset of the agents are active at any given time and the set of active agents is time-varying. This type of multi-agent system is relevant in applications such as modular multilevel conver…
This paper considers the problem of simultaneous sensor fault detection, isolation, and networked estimation of linear full-rank dynamical systems. The proposed networked estimation is a variant of single time-scale protocol and is based on (i) consensus on \textit{a-priori} estimates and (ii) measurement innovation. The necessary connectivity condition on the sensor network and stabilizing block-diagonal gain matrix is derived based on our previous works. Considering additive faults in the presence of system and measurement noise, the estimation error at sensors is derived and proper residual…
Latency is inherent in almost all real-world networked applications. In this paper, we propose a distributed allocation strategy over multi-agent networks with delayed communications. The state of each agent (or node) represents its share of assigned resources out of a fixed amount (equal to overall demand). Every node locally updates its state toward optimizing a global allocation cost function via received information of its neighbouring nodes even when the data exchange over the network is heterogeneously delayed at different links. The update is based on the alternating direction method of…
A cyber security problem in a networked system formulated as a resilient graph problem based on a game-theoretic approach is considered. The connectivity of the underlying graph of the network system is reduced by an attacker who removes some of the edges whereas the defender attempts to recover them. Both players are subject to energy constraints so that their actions are restricted and cannot be performed continuously. For this two-stage game, which is played repeatedly over time, we characterize the optimal strategies for the attacker and the defender in terms of edge connectivity and the n…
Classical distributed estimation scenarios typically assume timely and reliable exchanges of information over the sensor network. This paper, in contrast, considers single time-scale distributed estimation via a sensor network subject to transmission time-delays. The proposed discrete-time networked estimator consists of two steps: (i) consensus on (delayed) a-priori estimates, and (ii) measurement update. The sensors only share their a-priori estimates with their out-neighbors over (possibly) time-delayed transmission links. The delays are assumed to be fixed over time, heterogeneous, and kno…
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）
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…
A networked system can be made resilient against adversaries and attacks if the underlying network graph is structurally robust. For instance, to achieve distributed consensus in the presence of adversaries, the underlying network graph needs to satisfy certain robustness conditions. A typical approach to making networks structurally robust is to strategically add extra links between nodes, which might be prohibitively expensive. In this paper, we propose an alternative way of improving network's robustness, that is by considering heterogeneity of nodes. Nodes in a network can be of different …
