This book focuses on the characteristics of cooperative control problems for general linear multi-agent systems, including formation control, air traffic control, rendezvous, foraging, role assignment, and cooperative search. On this basis and combined with linear system theory, it introduces readers to the cooperative tracking problem for identical continuous-time multi-agent systems under state-coupled dynamics; the cooperative output regulation for heterogeneous multi-agent systems; and the optimal output regulation for model-free multi-agent systems. In closing, the results are extended to multiple leaders, and cooperative containment control for uncertain multi-agent systems is addressed. Given its scope, the book offers an essential reference guide for researchers and designers of multi-agent systems, as well as a valuable resource for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.

The main focus of this book is a pair of cooperative control problems: consensus and cooperative output regulation. Its emphasis is on complex multi-agent systems characterized by strong nonlinearity, large uncertainty, heterogeneity, external disturbances and jointly connected switching communication topologies. The cooperative output regulation problem is a generalization of the classical output regulation problem to multi-agent systems and it offers a general framework for handling a variety of cooperative control problems such as consensus, formation, tracking and disturbance rejection. The book strikes a balance between rigorous mathematical proof and engineering practicality. Every design method is systematically presented together with illustrative examples and all the designs are validated by computer simulation. The methods presented are applied to several practical problems, among them the leader-following consensus problem of multiple Euler–Lagrange systems, attitude synchronization of multiple rigid-body systems, and power regulation of microgrids. The book gives a detailed exposition of two approaches to the design of distributed control laws for complex multi-agent systems—the distributed-observer and distributed-internal-model approaches. Mastering both will enhance a reader’s ability to deal with a variety of complex real-world problems. Cooperative Control of Multi-agent Systems can be used as a textbook for graduate students in engineering, sciences, and mathematics, and can also serve as a reference book for practitioners and theorists in both industry and academia. Some knowledge of the fundamentals of linear algebra, calculus, and linear systems are needed to gain maximum benefit from this book. Advances in Industrial Control reports and encourages the transfer of technology in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of new work in all aspects of industrial control.

A comprehensive review of the state of the art in the control of multi-agent systems theory and applications The superiority of multi-agent systems over single agents for the control of unmanned air, water and ground vehicles has been clearly demonstrated in a wide range of application areas. Their large-scale spatial distribution, robustness, high scalability and low cost enable multi-agent systems to achieve tasks that could not successfully be performed by even the most sophisticated single agent systems. Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems: Theory and Applications provides a wide-ranging review of the latest developments in the cooperative control of multi-agent systems theory and applications. The applications described are mainly in the areas of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). Throughout, the authors link basic theory to multi-agent cooperative control practice — illustrated within the context of highly-realistic scenarios of high-level missions — without losing site of the mathematical background needed to provide performance guarantees under general working conditions. Many of the problems and solutions considered involve combinations of both types of vehicles. Topics explored include target assignment, target tracking, consensus, stochastic game theory-based framework, event-triggered control, topology design and identification, coordination under uncertainty and coverage control. Establishes a bridge between fundamental cooperative control theory and specific problems of interest in a wide range of applications areas Includes example applications from the fields of space exploration, radiation shielding, site clearance, tracking/classification, surveillance, search-and-rescue and more Features detailed presentations of specific algorithms and application frameworks with relevant commercial and military applications Provides a comprehensive look at the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field, while offering informed speculation on future directions for collective control systems The use of multi-agent system technologies in both everyday commercial use and national defense is certain to increase tremendously in the years ahead, making this book a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and applied mathematicians working in systems and controls, as well as advanced undergraduates and graduate students interested in those areas.

This book showcases new theoretical findings and techniques in the field of intelligent systems and control. It presents in-depth studies on a number of major topics, including: Multi-Agent Systems, Complex Networks, Intelligent Robots, Complex System Theory and Swarm Behavior, Event-Triggered Control and Data-Driven Control, Robust and Adaptive Control, Big Data and Brain Science, Process Control, Intelligent Sensor and Detection Technology, Deep learning and Learning Control, Guidance, Navigation and Control of Aerial Vehicles, and so on. Given its scope, the book will benefit all researchers, engineers, and graduate students who want to learn about cutting-edge advances in intelligent systems, intelligent control, and artificial intelligence.

Swarm system, also known as multi-agent system, refers to a system composed of multiple subsystems (agents) with certain communication, calculation, decision-making, and action capabilities through local information interaction, such as a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), satellites, etc. Formation tracking control of swarm systems is an important technical support and approach for the emergence of swarm intelligence at motion control level. By applying formation tracking control, swarm system agents can adjust their relations in the state or output space through neighboring information interaction, and then the swarm system can achieve favorable space-time conditions for many cooperative tasks such as source seeking, target enclosing, and surveillance. Thus, complex missions can be performed efficiently or cost-effectively. In cross-domain collaborative applications, including air-ground coordination and air-sea coordination, swarm systems are usually composed of several heterogeneous agents, and swarm intelligence can be enhanced by complementary functions of different agents. How to achieve time-varying formation tracking for heterogeneous swarm systems is crucial for cross-domain coordination, which has important theoretical value and practical significance. This important book presents a systematic theoretical approach and control framework on the time-varying formation tracking for high-order heterogeneous swarm systems. Distributed controller design and stability analysis of closed-loop systems for several specific formation tracking problems are provided. Furthermore, the proposed control approaches are applied to practical cooperative experiment platforms composed of UAVs and UGVs, and several formation tracking experiments are carried out to further verify the effectiveness of the theories.

This thesis contributes to the development of a cooperative control theory for homogeneous and heterogeneous multi-agent systems consisting of identical and non-identical dynamical agents, respectively. The goal is to explain fundamental effects of non-identical agent dynamics on the behavior of a distributed system and, primarily, to develop suitable control design methods for a wide range of multi-agent coordination problems. Output synchronization problems as well as cooperative disturbance rejection and reference tracking problems in multi-agent systems are investigated. Suitable controller design methods for networks consisting of identical or non-identical linear time-invariant systems, linear parameter-varying systems, and selected classes of nonlinear systems are developed. These controller design methods provide a solution to a wide variety of distributed coordination and cooperative control scenarios.

The book focuses on time-varying formation control approaches for practical nonlinear swarm systems. Time-varying formation control is the basic guarantee for performing other tasks of swarm systems, such as cooperative decision-making and cooperative detection. However, most practical swarm systems have nonlinear dynamic models. This book studies three typical models of practical nonlinear swarm systems, which represent most of the practical systems and construct the corresponding formation control structure. At the same time, the effects of disturbances, uncertain dynamics, random noise and unknown leader's input are considered and processed to improve the robustness and adaptability. The comprehensive and systematic treatment of practical nonlinear time-varying formation control issues is one of the major features of the book, which is particularly suited for readers who are interested to learn time-varying formation control solutions in nonlinear swarm systems. The book benefits researchers, engineers and graduate students in the fields of formation control, nonlinear control, robust control, etc.

Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems: An Optimal and Robust Perspective reports and encourages technology transfer in the field of cooperative control of multi-agent systems. The book deals with UGVs, UAVs, UUVs and spacecraft, and more. It presents an extended exposition of the authors' recent work on all aspects of multi-agent technology. Modelling and cooperative control of multi-agent systems are topics of great interest, across both academia (research and education) and industry (for real applications and end-users). Graduate students and researchers from a wide spectrum of specialties in electrical, mechanical or aerospace engineering fields will use this book as a key resource. - Helps shape the reader's understanding of optimal and robust cooperative control design techniques for multi-agent systems - Presents new theoretical control challenges and investigates unresolved/open problems - Explores future research trends in multi-agent systems - Offers a certain amount of analytical mathematics, practical numerical procedures, and actual implementations of some proposed approaches

Multi-agent coordination is an emerging engineering It has been inspired by the observations and descriptions of collective behavior in nature, such as fish schooling, birds flocking and insects swarming. The advantages of multi-agent coordination include: it can reduce cost and complexity from hardware platform to software and algorithms; in addition, multi-agent systems are capable of many tasks which could not be effectively performed by a single-robot system, for example, the surveillance task. The book proposes a hierarchical design framework that places uncertainties related to system models in the decentralized control layer (bottom layer) and the ones related to the communication (as well as physical interaction) between the agents in the distributed decision-making layer (top layer). The book shows that the two layers meet the separation principle under certain conditions, so that through the two-layer design framework, any challenges can be resolved independently, and the design complexity will not increase with the level of uncertainties. In addition, in order to solve the problem of energy limitation of agents, this book also studies the event-driven cooperative control of multi-agent systems, which can effectively reduce the energy consumption of agents and increase their operational life span. - Bridges the gap for engineers and technicians in the automation industry, including theory and practice - Provides a general framework for dealing with various uncertainties in multi-agent cooperative control problems - Contains contributions surrounding the development of multi-agent systems control theory

The two-volume set LNCS 7951 and 7952 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2013, held in Dalian, China, in July 2013. The 157 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in following topics: computational neuroscience, cognitive science, neural network models, learning algorithms, stability and convergence analysis, kernel methods, large margin methods and SVM, optimization algorithms, varational methods, control, robotics, bioinformatics and biomedical engineering, brain-like systems and brain-computer interfaces, data mining and knowledge discovery and other applications of neural networks.