Connectivity-Preserving Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems with Bounded Actuation

TL;DR

This paper explores how bounded actuation affects the ability of multi-agent systems to reach consensus while maintaining connectivity, proposing control strategies for different agent dynamics and actuation constraints.

Contribution

It introduces new control methods that enable connectivity-preserving consensus under actuation bounds for both kinematic and Euler-Lagrange agents.

Findings

Gradient-based controls achieve consensus with saturation for kinematic agents.

Actuator saturation limits initial states for Euler-Lagrange agents to synchronize.

Unbounded actuation allows consensus without velocity measurements or exact dynamics.

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of bounded actuation on the connectivity-preserving consensus of two classes of multi-agent systems, with kinematic agents and with Euler- Lagrange agents. The investigation establishes that: (1) there exists a class of gradient-based controls which drive kinematic multi-agent systems to connectivity-preserving consensus even if they saturate; (2) actuator saturation restricts the initial states from which Euler-Lagrange multi-agent systems can be synchronized while preserving their local connectivity; (3) Euler-Lagrange multi-agent systems with unbounded actuation can achieve connectivity-preserving consensus without velocity measurements or exact system dynamics; and (4) a proposed indirect coupling control strategy drives Euler-Lagrange multi-agent systems with limited actuation and starting from rest to connectivitypreserving consensus without requiring velocity measurements and including in the presence of uncertain dynamics and timevarying delays.