Sliding mode reference conditioning for coordination in swarms of non-identical multi-agent systems

A novel approach is proposed for coordination of swarms of dynamical systems in order to provide them with a desired collective behavior. The approach is based on the sliding mode reference conditioning technique as local interaction handler among neighbor systems. Neighbor systems become connected when a virtual constraint between them is violated, leading to a time-varying switching topology for the connections in the swarm. The approach addresses the problem of coordinating dynamical systems with possibly different dynamics (e.g. linear and nonlinear, different orders, constraints, etc.), assuming there is no leader. The main idea is to shape the systems local feasible references in order to keep them coordinated. Coordination is understood as invariance of a set defined by some aimed relationship among the references. This implies considering the local goals, the systems constraints and the achievable performances as well. To show the applicability of the approach, the problem of coordinating a swarm of different dynamical systems with control saturations is addressed as a particular case.