3 Papers

SYMar 13, 2016
Synchronization of Multi-Agent Systems With Heterogeneous Controllers

Anoop Jain, Debasish Ghose

This paper studies the synchronization of a multi-agent system where the agents are coupled through heterogeneous controller gains. Synchronization refers to the situation where all the agents in a group have a common velocity direction. We generalize existing results and show that by using heterogeneous controller gains, the final velocity direction at which the system of agents synchronize can be controlled. The effect of heterogeneous gains on the reachable set of this final velocity direction is further analyzed. We also show that for realistic systems, a limited control force to stabilize the agents to the synchronized condition can be achieved by confining these heterogeneous controller gains to an upper bound. Simulations are given to support the theoretical findings.

SYMay 29, 2016
Phase Balancing of Two and Three-Agent Heterogeneous Gain Systems With Extensions to Multiple Agents

Anoop Jain, Debasish Ghose

This paper studies the phase balancing of a two and three-agent system where the agents are coupled through heterogeneous controller gains. Balancing refers to the situation in which the movement of agents causes the position of their centroid to become stationary. We generalize existing results and show that by using heterogeneous controller gains, the velocity directions of the agents in balanced formation can be controlled. The effect of heterogeneous gains on the reachable set of these velocity directions is further analyzed. For the two-agents case, the locus of steady-state location of the centroid is also analyzed against the variations in the heterogeneous controller gains. Simulations are given to illustrate the theoretical findings.

SYMar 17, 2016
Collective Circular Motion of Multi-Agent Systems in Synchronized and Balanced Formations With Second-Order Rotational Dynamics

Anoop Jain, Debasish Ghose

This paper considers the collective circular motion of multi-agent systems in which all the agents are required to traverse different circles or a common circle at a prescribed angular velocity. It is required to achieve these collective motions with the heading angles of the agents synchronized or balanced. In synchronization, the agents and their centroid have a common velocity direction, while in balancing, the movement of agents causes the location of the centroid to become stationary. The agents considered are initially moving at unit speed around individual circles at different angular velocities. It is assumed that the agents are subjected to limited communication constraints, and exchange relative information according to a time-invariant undirected graph. We present suitable feedback control laws for each of these motion coordination tasks by considering a second-order rotational dynamics of the agent. Simulations are given to illustrate the theoretical findings.