This book describes an effective approach to the cooperative and coordinated control of multivehicle systems. This rigorous analytic approach guarantees the stability of coordinated and cooperating vehicles using distributed protocols and uses low-energy, event-triggered mechanisms for networked vehicle control. The text covers: design of a cooperative protocol to achieve consensus for multivehicle systems, allowing cooperation that is resistant to the effects of packet loss and/or adversarial attack; analysis and synthesis of an event-triggering mechanism for cooperative multivehicle systems over uncertain networks; and the problem of distributed leader-following consensus and methods for compelling multivehicle systems to reach consensus. Throughout the book, cooperation problems are transformed into stability problems. Lyapunov theory is used to guarantee cooperation among agents. The distributed approach is applied to triggering mechanisms, the cooperation process, and the impact of cyber-attacks. Discrete-time analysis shows how the event-based structure can be designed to match the performance of continuous-time counterparts. The book details applications and computer simulation with several practical examples. This book is of interest to a wide audience from the graduate student, through the academic researcher to the industrial practitioner, all of them sharing a common interest in the stability and security of multiagent systems.

Discrete-Time Systems comprehend an important and broad research field. The consolidation of digital-based computational means in the present, pushes a technological tool into the field with a tremendous impact in areas like Control, Signal Processing, Communications, System Modelling and related Applications. This book attempts to give a scope in the wide area of Discrete-Time Systems. Their contents are grouped conveniently in sections according to significant areas, namely Filtering, Fixed and Adaptive Control Systems, Stability Problems and Miscellaneous Applications. We think that the contribution of the book enlarges the field of the Discrete-Time Systems with signification in the present state-of-the-art. Despite the vertiginous advance in the field, we also believe that the topics described here allow us also to look through some main tendencies in the next years in the research area.

Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems extends optimal control and adaptive control design methods to multi-agent systems on communication graphs. It develops Riccati design techniques for general linear dynamics for cooperative state feedback design, cooperative observer design, and cooperative dynamic output feedback design. Both continuous-time and discrete-time dynamical multi-agent systems are treated. Optimal cooperative control is introduced and neural adaptive design techniques for multi-agent nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics, which are rarely treated in literature are developed. Results spanning systems with first-, second- and on up to general high-order nonlinear dynamics are presented. Each control methodology proposed is developed by rigorous proofs. All algorithms are justified by simulation examples. The text is self-contained and will serve as an excellent comprehensive source of information for researchers and graduate students working with multi-agent systems.

The analysis and design of control strategies for the synchronization of subsystems that are coupled over communication networks is the topic of this thesis. Typically, synchronization problems deal with the asymptotic behavior of networked multi-agent systems, where it is required that the states of the subsystems follow a common trajectory as the time approaches infinity. In contrast, this thesis focuses on strategies that do not only fulfill the requirement on asymptotic synchronization but also requirements on the transient behavior of networked multi-agent systems. Motivated by a growing number of applications where subsystems exchange their information by means of modern communication systems, the limits on the achievable performance of synchronization are studied for large teams of autonomous subsystems. In particular, control strategies that do not require any centralized coordination of the subsystems are developed.

In this book, we present our systematic investigations into consensus in multi-agent systems. We show the design and analysis of various types of consensus protocols from a multi-agent perspective with a focus on min-consensus and its variants. We also discuss second-order and high-order min-consensus. A very interesting topic regarding the link between consensus and path planning is also included. We show that a biased min-consensus protocol can lead to the path planning phenomenon, which means that the complexity of shortest path planning can emerge from a perturbed version of min-consensus protocol, which as a case study may encourage researchers in the field of distributed control to rethink the nature of complexity and the distance between control and intelligence. We also illustrate the design and analysis of consensus protocols for nonlinear multi-agent systems derived from an optimal control formulation, which do not require solving a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation. The book was written in a self-contained format. For each consensus protocol, the performance is verified through simulative examples and analyzed via mathematical derivations, using tools like graph theory and modern control theory. The book’s goal is to provide not only theoretical contributions but also explore underlying intuitions from a methodological perspective.

This book offers a thorough introduction to the basics and scientific and technological innovations involved in the modern study of reinforcement-learning-based feedback control. The authors address a wide variety of systems including work on nonlinear, networked, multi-agent and multi-player systems. A concise description of classical reinforcement learning (RL), the basics of optimal control with dynamic programming and network control architectures, and a brief introduction to typical algorithms build the foundation for the remainder of the book. Extensive research on data-driven robust control for nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics and multi-player systems follows. Data-driven optimal control of networked single- and multi-player systems leads readers into the development of novel RL algorithms with increased learning efficiency. The book concludes with a treatment of how these RL algorithms can achieve optimal synchronization policies for multi-agent systems with unknown model parameters and how game RL can solve problems of optimal operation in various process industries. Illustrative numerical examples and complex process control applications emphasize the realistic usefulness of the algorithms discussed. The combination of practical algorithms, theoretical analysis and comprehensive examples presented in Reinforcement Learning will interest researchers and practitioners studying or using optimal and adaptive control, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and operations research, whether advancing the theory or applying it in mineral-process, chemical-process, power-supply or other industries.

This book belongs to the subject of control and systems theory. It studies a novel data-driven framework for the design and analysis of iterative learning control (ILC) for nonlinear discrete-time systems. A series of iterative dynamic linearization methods is discussed firstly to build a linear data mapping with respect of the system’s output and input between two consecutive iterations. On this basis, this work presents a series of data-driven ILC (DDILC) approaches with rigorous analysis. After that, this work also conducts significant extensions to the cases with incomplete data information, specified point tracking, higher order law, system constraint, nonrepetitive uncertainty, and event-triggered strategy to facilitate the real applications. The readers can learn the recent progress on DDILC for complex systems in practical applications. This book is intended for academic scholars, engineers, and graduate students who are interested in learning control, adaptive control, nonlinear systems, and related fields.

This book studies selected discrete-time flight control schemes for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems in the presence of system uncertainties, external disturbances and input saturation. The main contributions of this book for UAV systems are as follows: (i) the proposed integer-order discrete-time control schemes are based on the designed discrete-time disturbance observers (DTDOs) and the neural network (NN); and (ii) the fractional-order discrete-time control schemes are developed by using the fractional-order calculus theory, the NN and the DTDOs. The book offers readers a good understanding of how to establish discrete-time tracking control schemes for fixed-wing UAV systems subject to system uncertainties, external wind disturbances and input saturation. It represents a valuable reference guide for academic research on uncertain UAV systems, and can also support advanced / Ph.D. studies on control theory and engineering.

In this book, control and filtering problems for several classes of stochastic networked systems are discussed. In each chapter, the stability, robustness, reliability, consensus performance, and/or disturbance attenuation levels are investigated within a unified theoretical framework. The aim is to derive the sufficient conditions such that the resulting systems achieve the prescribed design requirements despite all the network-induced phenomena. Further, novel notions such as randomly occurring sensor failures and consensus in probability are discussed. Finally, the theories/techniques developed are applied to emerging research areas. Key Features Unifies existing and emerging concepts concerning stochastic control/filtering and distributed control/filtering with an emphasis on a variety of network-induced complexities Includes concepts like randomly occurring sensor failures and consensus in probability (with respect to time-varying stochastic multi-agent systems) Exploits the recursive linear matrix inequality approach, completing the square method, Hamilton-Jacobi inequality approach, and parameter-dependent matrix inequality approach to handle the emerging mathematical/computational challenges Captures recent advances of theories, techniques, and applications of stochastic control as well as filtering from an engineering-oriented perspective Gives simulation examples in each chapter to reflect the engineering practice

This text presents a unique treatment of network control systems. Drawing from fundamental principles of dynamical systems theory and dynamical thermodynamics, the authors develop a continuous-time, discrete-time, and hybrid dynamical system and control framework for linear and nonlinear large-scale network systems. The proposed framework extends the concepts of energy, entropy, and temperature to undirected and directed information networks. Continuous-time, discrete-time, and hybrid thermodynamic principles are used to design distributed control protocol algorithms for static and dynamic networked systems in the face of system uncertainty, exogenous disturbances, imperfect system network communication, and time delays. Network Information Systems: A Dynamical Systems Approach is written for applied mathematicians, dynamical systems theorists, control theorists, and engineers. Researchers and graduate students in a variety of fields who seek a fundamental understanding of the rich behavior of controlled large-scale network systems will also find this book useful. This book can be used for a first course on control design of large-scale network systems, such as control protocols for network systems, network information systems, a dynamical systems approach to network systems, and network thermodynamic systems. The prerequisites are a first course in nonlinear systems theory and a first course in advanced (multivariable) calculus.