Scale-free weak output synchronization of multi-agent systems with adaptive protocols
Anton A. Stoorvogel, Ali Saberi, Zhenwei Liu, Qiaofeng Wen
TL;DR
This work tackles output synchronization in multi-agent systems under limited network information by introducing weak synchronization as a stability-driven relaxation. It presents two scale-free adaptive protocols—non-collaborative and collaborative—that rely only on agent models and work for networks of any size and topology. Theoretical results show classical synchronization under spanning-tree conditions and weak synchronization when the network lacks such connectivity, with synchronization within basic bicomponents and convex combinations for others. The nonlinear, adaptive design extends prior linear, pole-restricted methods and eliminates the need for detailed network bounds, broadening applicability to partially connected networks.
Abstract
In this paper, we study output synchronization for multi-agent systems. The objective is to design a protocol which only depends on the agent dynamics and does not require any knowledge of the network. If the network has a directed spanning tree then the protocols designed in this paper achieve classical output synchronization. Otherwise, the protocol achieves weak synchronization which is induced by network stability in the sense that the signals exchanged over the network converge to zero. Weak sychronization is explained in detail in this paper. Even though we consider linear agents, it is known that this in general requires nonlinear protocols. In the paper we use adaptive protocols. In the literature, two classes of protocols are considered often called collaborative protocols (with additional communication between the protocols and non-collaborative protocols (sometimes referred to as fully decentralized where the additional communication is not present). This paper considers both of these cases.