A graph-theoretic characterization of structural controllability for multi-agent system with switching topology

Author

Liu, Xiaomeng ; Lin, Hai ; Chen, Ben M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

fYear

2009

fDate

15-18 Dec. 2009

Firstpage

7012

Lastpage

7017

Abstract

This paper considers the controllability problem for multi-agent systems. In particular, the structural controllability of multi-agent systems with a single leader under switching topologies is investigated. The structural controllability of multi-agent systems is a generalization of the traditional controllability concept for dynamical systems, and purely based on the communication topologies among agents. The main contribution of the paper is a graph-theoretic characterization of the structural controllability for multi-agent systems. It turns out that the multi-agent system with switching topology is structurally controllable if and only if the union graph G of the underlaying communication topologies is connected. Finally, the paper concludes with several illustrative examples and discussions of the results and future work.

Keywords

controllability; graph theory; multi-robot systems; time-varying systems; communication topology; dynamical system; graph-theoretic characterization; multiagent system; structural controllability; switching topology; union graph; Communication switching; Communication system control; Communication system traffic control; Computer displays; Control systems; Controllability; Laplace equations; Multiagent systems; Sufficient conditions; Topology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Decision and Control, 2009 held jointly with the 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference. CDC/CCC 2009. Proceedings of the 48th IEEE Conference on

Conference_Location

Shanghai

ISSN

0191-2216

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3871-6

Electronic_ISBN

0191-2216

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CDC.2009.5399886

Filename

5399886