Modelling, analysis and control of multi-agent systems: A brief overview

Multi-agent systems are ubiquitous in the world. Recently, multi-agent systems have received increasing attention from mathematics, physics, engineering sciences, and social science communities. This paper firstly introduces several fundamental concepts and then reviews several representative models of multi-agent systems, including the Boids model, Vicsek model, Couzin-Levin model and its invariants, and various complex dynamical networks. Based on these models, it further investigates the dynamical behaviors of multi-agent systems, such as consensus, convergence, adaptation, and consensus decision-making. Moreover, it briefly reviews the main progress in the control of multi-agent systems. Finally, it looks ahead into some important research topics on multi-agent systems, with regard to modelling, analysis, and control.