Distributed Cooperative Control of Networked Multiple Dynamic Systems with Time Delays and its Application

Networked multiple dynamic systems have been used to describe many practical controlsystems such as networked multiple mobile robots, networked teams of micro-satellites,and sensor networks. They are often capable of carrying out much more complex tasksthan a single system. They have attracted considerable attention from controlcommunity in past years due to their distinctive advantages of good robustness andscalability, and their great potential in military and industrial applications. The recentliterature review reveals that most existing works on cooperative control of networkedmultiple dynamic systems either do not consider time-delays at all or only considersimple forms of time-delays such as a common time-delay for all systems or constanttime-delays with simple system dynamics such as single/double integrator and withsimple network topologies such as fixed topologies. However, it is well known that time-delaysoften exist in practical systems and their presence is often the cause forinstability and poor performance, and that time-delays can be of complex forms such asdifferent time-delays for different systems or varying time-delays. It is also well knownthat system dynamics of many practical networked systems cannot be described bysingle/double integrator and that network topologies could be time-varying. Inspired bythese observations, it is desirable to consider cooperative control of networked multiplesystems with more general systems dynamics, more general forms of time-delays, andmore general network topologies. In particular, this project will investigate cooperativecontrol of networked multiple dynamic systems with heterogeneous system dynamics,with varying time-delays or even infinite time-delays, and with switching networktopologies. More advanced theories, techniques, and tools will be developed to deal withthose more challenging scenarios. The outcome of this project is expected to consolidatetheoretical foundation and also enhance application potential of cooperative control fornetworked multiple dynamic systems.