Distributed Quantized Average Consensus in Open Multi-Agent Systems with Dynamic Communication Links

TL;DR

This paper introduces a distributed algorithm for open multi-agent systems with dynamic communication links that achieves quantized average consensus efficiently and in finite time, even as the network topology changes.

Contribution

It proposes a novel distributed algorithm that guarantees finite-time convergence to quantized average consensus in open, dynamically changing multi-agent systems.

Findings

Algorithm ensures finite-time convergence.

Requires specific topological conditions.

Demonstrated effectiveness through simulations.

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the distributed quantized average consensus problem in open multi-agent systems consisting of communication links that change dynamically over time. Open multi-agent systems exhibiting the aforementioned characteristic are referred to as \textit{open dynamic multi-agent systems} in this work. We present a distributed algorithm that enables active nodes in the open dynamic multi-agent system to calculate the quantized average of their initial states. Our algorithm consists of the following advantages: (i) ensures efficient communication by enabling nodes to exchange quantized valued messages, and (ii) exhibits finite time convergence to the desired solution. We establish the correctness of our algorithm and we present necessary and sufficient topological conditions for it to successfully solve the quantized average consensus problem in an open dynamic multi-agent system. Finally, we illustrate the performance of our algorithm with numerical simulations.