Zhiyun Lin

Necessary and sufficient graphical conditions for formation control of unicycles

The feasibility problem is studied of achieving a specified formation among a group of autonomous unicycles by local distributed control. The directed graph defined by the information flow plays a key role. It is proved that formation stabilization to a point is feasible if and only if the sensor digraph has a globally reachable node. A similar result is given for formation stabilization to a line and to more general geometric arrangements.

State Agreement for Continuous-Time Coupled Nonlinear Systems

Two related problems are treated in continuous time. First, the state agreement problem is studied for coupled nonlinear differential equations. The vector fields can switch within a finite family. Associated to each vector field is a directed graph based in a natural way on the interaction structure of the subsystems. Generalizing the work of Moreau, under the assumption that the vector fields satisfy a certain subtangentiality condition, it is proved that asymptotic state agreement is achieved if and only if the dynamic interaction digraph has the property of being sufficiently connected over time. The proof uses nonsmooth analysis. Second, the rendezvous problem for kinematic point-mass mobile robots is studied when the robots’ fields of view have a fixed radius. The circumcenter control law of Ando e [IEEE Trans. Robotics Automation, 15 (1999), pp. 818-828] is shown to solve the problem. The rendezvous problem is a kind of state agreement problem, but the interaction structure is state dependent.

Local control strategies for groups of mobile autonomous agents

The problem is studied of achieving a specified formation among a group of mobile autonomous agents by distributed control. If convergence to a point is feasible, then more general formations are achievable too, so the focus is on convergence to a point (the agreement problem). Three formation strategies are studied and convergence is proved under certain conditions. Also, motivated by the question of whether collisions occur, formation evolution is studied.

Distributed Formation Control of Multi-Agent Systems Using Complex Laplacian

The paper concentrates on the fundamental coordination problem that requires a network of agents to achieve a specific but arbitrary formation shape. A new technique based on complex Laplacian is introduced to address the problems of which formation shapes specified by inter-agent relative positions can be formed and how they can be achieved with distributed control ensuring global stability. Concerning the first question, we show that all similar formations subject to only shape constraints are those that lie in the null space of a complex Laplacian satisfying certain rank condition and that a formation shape can be realized almost surely if and only if the graph modeling the inter-agent specification of the formation shape is 2-rooted. Concerning the second question, a distributed and linear control law is developed based on the complex Laplacian specifying the target formation shape, and provable existence conditions of stabilizing gains to assign the eigenvalues of the closed-loop system at desired locations are given. Moreover, we show how the formation shape control law is extended to achieve a rigid formation if a subset of knowledgable agents knowing the desired formation size scales the formation while the rest agents do not need to re-design and change their control laws.

Leader-follower formation via complex Laplacian

The paper introduces complex-valued Laplacians for graphs whose edges are attributed with complex weights and studies the leader-follower formation problem based on complex Laplacians. The main goal is to control the shape of a planar formation of point agents in the plane using simple and linear interaction rules related to complex Laplacians. We present a characterization of complex Laplacians that preserve a specific planar formation as an equilibrium solution for both single integrator kinematics and double integrator dynamics. Planar formations under study are subject to translation, rotation, and scaling in the plane, but can be determined by two co-leaders in leader-follower networks. Furthermore, when a complex Laplacian does not result in an asymptotically stable behavior of the multi-agent system, we show that a stabilizing matrix, which updates the complex weights, exists to asymptotically stabilize the system while preserving the equilibrium formation. Also, algorithms are provided to find stabilizing matrices. Finally, simulations are presented to illustrate our results.

Local control strategy for moving-target-enclosing under dynamically changing network topology

Abstract This paper studies the moving-target-enclosing problem for a group of autonomous mobile robots, which can be seen as the requirement of achieving a formation surrounding a moving target whose movement is not known a priori. A local information control law is proposed to solve the problem utilizing only the relative position information from the target and its neighbors. The derivation of the controller is based on the idea of decoupling the task of target tracking and the task of inter-robot coordination. It is shown that the group of autonomous mobile robots collaboratively estimates the moving velocity of the target and asymptotically reaches a regular polygon formation to keep the moving target as its centroid. The neighbor topology may dynamically change as the system evolves. Hence, a non-smooth version of LaSalle’s invariance principle is used to show the convergence.

Distributed control of cooperative target enclosing based on reachability and invariance analysis

The paper presents a hybrid control approach to the problem of steering a group of unicycle-type mobile robots to reach desired relative positions and orientations with respect to a specific target and other group-mates, which is referred to as the cooperative target enclosing problem. With the idea of having independent motion towards the target without inter-individual interactions in the further range and switching to coordinated motion control in the closer range to the target, reachability and invariance analysis is recalled to yield a hybrid control law using only local available information such that a group of unicycle-type mobile robots achieves a uniform circular motion around the target at equal angular distances from each other.

A Dual Quaternion Solution to Attitude and Position Control for Rigid-Body Coordination

This paper focuses on finding a dual quaternion solution to attitude and position control for multiple rigid body coordination. Representing rigid bodies in 3-D space by unit dual quaternion kinematics, a distributed control strategy, together with a specified rooted-tree structure, are proposed to control the attitude and position of networked rigid bodies simultaneously with notion concision and nonsingularity. A property called pairwise asymptotic stability of the overall system is then analyzed and validated by an example of seven quad-rotor formation in the Urban Search And Rescue Simulation (USARSim) platform. As a separate but related issue, a maximum depth condition of the rooted tree is found with respect to error accumulation along each path using dual quaternion algebra, such that a given safety bound on attitude and position errors can be satisfied.

Distributed Bisection Method for Economic Power Dispatch in Smart Grid

In this paper, we present a fully distributed bisection algorithm for the economic dispatch problem (EDP) in a smart grid scenario, with the goal to minimize the aggregated cost of a network of generators, which cooperatively furnish a given amount of power within their individual capacity constraints. Our distributed algorithm adopts the method of bisection, and is based on a consensus-like iterative method, with no need for a central decision maker or a leader node. Under strong connectivity conditions and allowance for local communications, we show that the iterative solution converges to the globally optimal solution. Furthermore, two stopping criteria are presented for the practical implementation of the proposed algorithm, for which sign consensus is defined. Finally, numerical simulations based on the IEEE 14-bus and 118-bus systems are given to illustrate the performance of the algorithm.

Decentralized Optimal Demand-Side Management for PHEV Charging in a Smart Grid

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are expected to become widespread in the near future. However, high penetration of PHEVs can overload the distribution system. In smart grid, the charging of PHEVs can be controlled to reduce the peak load, known as demand-side management (DSM). In this paper, we focus on the DSM for PHEV charging at low-voltage transformers (LVTs). The objective is to flatten the load curve of LVTs, while satisfying each consumers requirement for their PHEV to be charged to the required level by the specified time. We first formulate this problem as a convex optimization problem and then propose a decentralized water-filling-based algorithm to solve it. A moving horizon approach is utilized to handle the random arrival of PHEVs and the inaccuracy of the forecast nonPHEV load. We focus on decentralized solutions so that computational load can be shared by individual PHEV chargers and the algorithm is scalable. Numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm.