The robustness of various cooperative control schemes on large scale networked systems with respect to heterogeneous communication and coupling delays is investigated. The presented results provide delay-dependent and delay-independent conditions that guarantee consensus, rendezvous, flocking, and synchronization in different classes of multi-agent systems (MAS). All conditions are scalable to arbitrarily large multi-agent systems with non-identical agent dynamics. In particular, conditions for linear agents, for nonlinear agents with relative degree one, and for a class of nonlinear agents with relative degree two are presented. The interconnection topology between the agents is in most cases represented by an undirected graph. The results for nonlinear agents with relative degree one hold also for the more general case of directed graphs with switching topologies. Different delay configurations are investigated and compared. These configurations represent different ways how the delays affect the coupling between the agents. The presented robustness analysis considers constant, time-varying, and distributed delays in order to take different sources of delays into account. The results are applied to several typical applications and simulations illustrate the findings.

This book presents a concise introduction to the latest advances in robust cooperative control design for multi-agent systems with input delay and external disturbances, especially from a prediction and observation perspective. The volume covers a wide range of applications, such as the trajectory tracking of quadrotors, formation flying of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and fixed-time formation of ground vehicles. Robust cooperative control means that multi-agent systems are able to achieve specified control tasks while remaining robust in the face of both parametric and nonparametric model uncertainties. In addition, the authors cover a wide range of key issues in cooperative control, such as communication and input delays, parametric model uncertainties and external disturbances. Moving beyond the scope of existing works, a systematic prediction and observation approach to designing robust cooperative control laws is presented. About the Authors Chunyan Wang is an Associate Professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, China. Zongyu Zuo is a full Professor with the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, China. Jianan Wang is an Associate Professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, China. Zhengtao Ding is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University of Manchester, U.K.

This book mostly results from a selection of papers presented during the 11th IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Workshop on Time-Delay Systems, which took place in Grenoble, France, February 4 - 6, 2013. During this event, 37 papers were presented. Taking into account the reviewers' evaluation and the papers' presentation the best papers have been selected and collected into the present volume. The authors of 13 selected papers were invited to participate to this book and provided a more detailed and improved version of the conference paper. To enrich the book, three more chapters have been included from specialists on time-delay systems who presented their work during the 52nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, which held in December 10 - 13, 2013, at Florence, Italy. The content of the book is divided into four main parts as follows: Modeling, Stability analysis, Stabilization and control, and Input-delay systems. Focusing on various topics of time-delay systems, this book will be interesting for researchers and graduate students working on control and system theory.

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

Stability theory has allowed us to study both qualitative and quantitative properties of dynamical systems, and control theory has played a key role in designing numerous systems. Contemporary sensing and communication n- works enable collection and subscription of geographically-distributed inf- mation and such information can be used to enhance signi?cantly the perf- manceofmanyofexisting systems. Throughasharedsensing/communication network,heterogeneoussystemscannowbecontrolledtooperaterobustlyand autonomously; cooperative control is to make the systems act as one group and exhibit certain cooperative behavior, and it must be pliable to physical and environmental constraints as well as be robust to intermittency, latency and changing patterns of the information ?ow in the network. This book attempts to provide a detailed coverage on the tools of and the results on analyzing and synthesizing cooperative systems. Dynamical systems under consideration can be either continuous-time or discrete-time, either linear or non-linear, and either unconstrained or constrained. Technical contents of the book are divided into three parts. The ?rst part consists of Chapters 1, 2, and 4. Chapter 1 provides an overview of coope- tive behaviors, kinematical and dynamical modeling approaches, and typical vehicle models. Chapter 2 contains a review of standard analysis and design tools in both linear control theory and non-linear control theory. Chapter 4 is a focused treatment of non-negativematrices and their properties,multipli- tive sequence convergence of non-negative and row-stochastic matrices, and the presence of these matrices and sequences in linear cooperative systems.

"Robust Control for Uncertain Networked Control Systems with Random Delays" addresses the problem of analysis and design of networked control systems when the communication delays are varying in a random fashion. The random nature of the time delays is typical for commercially used networks, such as a DeviceNet (which is a controller area network) and Ethernet network. The main technique used in this book is based on the Lyapunov-Razumikhin method, which results in delay-dependent controllers. The existence of such controllers and fault estimators are given in terms of the solvability of bilinear matrix inequalities. Iterative algorithms are proposed to change this non-convex problem into quasi-convex optimization problems, which can be solved effectively by available mathematical tools. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed design method in the book, numerical examples are given in each designed control system.

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.