On the Synchronization of Second-Order Nonlinear Systems with Communication Constraints

TL;DR

This paper presents a control scheme for synchronizing second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems under communication constraints, delays, and packet loss, ensuring all agents reach a common position with a prescribed velocity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel synchronization protocol based on the small-gain framework that handles irregular communication delays and packet dropouts in multi-agent systems.

Findings

Synchronization achieved under directed graphs with a spanning tree.

Effective control gains selected with simple criteria.

Application demonstrated on Euler-Lagrange systems.

Abstract

This paper studies the synchronization problem of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with intermittent communication in the presence of irregular communication delays and possible information loss. The control objective is to steer all systems' positions to a common position with a prescribed desired velocity available to only some leaders. Based on the small-gain framework, we propose a synchronization scheme relying on an intermittent information exchange protocol in the presence of time delays and possible packet dropout. We show that our control objectives are achieved with a simple selection of the control gains provided that the directed graph, describing the interconnection between all systems (or agents), contains a spanning tree. The example of Euler-Lagrange systems is considered to illustrate the application and effectiveness of the proposed approach.