International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-4, Issue-3, March 2016
Adaptive Group Consensus of Multi-agent in
Switching Networks
Yujuan Cheng, Hui Yu
AbstractIn this paper, the group consensus problem of
multi-agent systems is studied in networks with switching
topologies, in which the nonlinear dynamics of all agents are
unknown and non-identical. We assume that the unknown
dynamics are linearly parameterized, and take adaptive control
method in the algorithm design. A novel adaptive algorithm is
proposed for the multi-agent systems in networks with
switching topologies to reach group consensus by using pinning
control strategies, which only rely on the relative position
measurements between each agent and its neighbours. Based on
Lyapunov theory, Barbalats lemma, adaptive control theory
and algebraic graph theory, the stability and parameter
convergence analysis are derived. Finally, a simulation example
is given to validate our theoretical results.
Index TermsGroup consensus, Multi-agent systems,
Switching topologies, Adaptive control, Parameter convergence
I. INTRODUCTION
With the high development of communication technology
and the increase of peoples demands, consensus
coordination control of multi-agent systems is indispensable
in our life, and is taken attention by a mass of researchers
[1-5]. The consensus problem is an important topic in
cooperative control of multi-agent systems. We say
consensus is reached if all agents can approach to a common
value.
Recently, the group consensus problem has drawn greater
attention of researchers [6-18]. The so-called group
consensus problem is to force groups of agents to reach
different group decision values. In [7], the authors study
group consensus problem in networks with undirected
communication graphs, present a novel consensus protocol
and establish some criteria. In [10], the authors study two
cases of interconnection topologies: one is the case of
switching topologies without communication delay; another
is the case of switching topologies with communication
delays. The dynamics of agents in [10] are transformed into
reduced-order systems by double-tree-form transformations,
and they obtain some analysis results for the two topologies.
In [13], the second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems in
networks with directed and weakly connected topologies are
considered to investigate the group consensus problem via
pinning leader-following approach. Based on the property of
all agents, the authors propose a pinning control protocol and
some consensus criteria. Under the laws, all agents
asymptotically follow the virtual leader in each group, and
Yujuan Cheng, College of Science, China Three Gorges University,
Yichang 443002, China.
Hui Yu, Corresponding author, College of Science, China Three Gorges
University, Yichang 443002, China, Phone No. +8613972603140.
This work is supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation
(NNSF) of China (61273183, 61374028 and 61304162).
32
each group is independent. In [14], the authors consider
group consensus problem of the first-order and the
second-order multi-agent systems in linearly coupled
networks, respectively. Two novel linear protocols are
proposed by using the interactive influence between the
agents in the multi-agent networks. Moreover, the authors
also study the group consensus problem for multi-agent
networks with generally connected topologies.
In this paper, the group consensus problem of uncertain
multi-agent systems, in which unknown and identical
nonlinear dynamics exist, is considered. A novel group
consensus algorithm is proposed such that groups of agents
can follow different groups leaders only using the relative
position information. The unknown nonlinear dynamics of
agents are assumed to be linearly parameterized, and adaptive
control design method is adopted to tune the unknown
parameters. The analysis of stability and parameter
convergence are based on Lyapunov theory, adaptive control
theory and PE (persistently exciting) condition.
The contributions of this paper are mainly in two aspects.
First, we present a novel group consensus algorithm for
uncertain multi-agent systems. To the best of our knowledge,
few researches address this issue. Second, a sufficient
condition is obtained for multi-agent systems to reach group
consensus. The PE condition plays a key role to guarantee the
parameter convergence, and the consensus stability is ensured
by Lyapunov theory.
The paper is constituted as follows. In section 2, some
descriptions, lemmas about multi-agent networks and some
preliminaries on graph theory are given. The problems are
stated in section 3. In section 4, we present our main results.
The simulation results are shown in section 5 to verify our
theoretical results. In section 6, we conclude our paper.
II. PRELIMINARIES
In a multi-agent system, each agent may receive or sense
information from other agents. Graph theory is a good choice
to model the communication relationships among these
agents.
A graph G (V E ) consists of a set of node V and a set
of edge E V V , where V {1 2 N} corresponding to
the N agents in the multi-agent system. If agent i can
receive information from agent j , then an edge (i j ) E
and agent j is called the neighbor of agent i . The set of
neighbors of agent i is denoted by Ni { j V (i j ) E
, j i} . The graph is undirected if agent i and agent j can
receive information from each other. Let the adjacency
matrix of graph G be A [aij ]N N , in which aij 1 if there
exists an edge (i j ) between agent i and j , otherwise
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 Adaptive Group Consensus of Multi-agent in Networks with Switching Networks

aij 0 . The Laplacian matrix of graph G is defined as. bounded, then V ( x t ) 0 as t .

aij , i j
III. PROBLEM STATEMENT
lij N (1)
aij , i j , Consider a multi-agent system consists of N agents
j 1
divided into m groups, the dynamics of N agents are given
which is symmetric for an undirected graph. From algebraic
by
graph theory [19], the following lemma is well known.
Lemma 1. The Laplacian L of graph G has at least one x i (t ) fi ( xi t ) ui (t ) i 1 2 N (2)

zero eigenvalue with 1N (11 1)T R N as its eigenvector, where xi (t ) R is the position of agent i , ui (t ) R is the
and all the non-zero eigenvalues of L are positive. The control input, and fi ( xi t ) R is the unknown dynamics of
Laplacian L has a simple zero eigenvalue if and only if agent i which is nonlinear. To guarantee the existence of
graph G is connected. unique solution of equation (2), we suppose that fi ( xi t ) is
In this paper, we consider the case that the interconnected continuous in t and Lipschitz in xi (t ) .
graphs of the systems are switching over time. The set of all We assume that there are m virtual leaders in m groups
possible switching graphs is denoted by {G p p P} , where
respectively, and the dynamics of these leaders are described
P is an index set. For describing the time dependence of by
graphs, a piecewise constant switching signal (t ) x 0 ( i )(t ) v0 (i ) (t ) i 1 2 N (3)
[0 ) P is defined. We use G ( t ) to denote the where x0 ( i ) (t ) R is the virtual leaders position of group
underlying graphs at time t on N nodes. Since the (i ) and v0 ( i ) (t ) R the velocity which is also unknown.
Laplacian L of the graph, the neighbors set Ni of agent i ,
Remark 1. The states of all agents are assumed to be in R . It
and the (i j ) th entry aij of A are all vary with time, their is trivial to extend this case to R n by introducing Kronecker
time varying versions are denoted by L ( t ) , aij (t ) and Ni (t ) , product.
respectively. Definition 1. For the N agents in the multi-agent system
(2), we say group consensus is achieved if, there exist
Assumption 1. The switching times of the switching signal controllers ui (t ) i 1 2 N such that
(t ) is finite in any bounded time intervals. lim xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t ) 0 (4)
t
We assume that N agents in multi-agent systems are for any initial condition xi (0) i 01 N .
divided into m groups, and denote the set of the i th group of
agents by Vi (t ) i 1 2 m . Then V (t ) V1(t ) V2(t )
Vm(t ) {1 2 N} and Vk(t ) Vs(t ) (k s) . Let (i) IV. MAIN RESULTS
(i ) Similar to [21], we assume that the unknown nonlinear
V (t ) {i 1 2 m} be a switching function and V (t ) be
dynamics in the system can be linearly parameterized. Then,
the agents set of group (i ) . Then (i) k {1 2 m}
the unknown nonlinear functions fi ( xi t ) , i 1 N and
means that agent i belongs to group k .
the unknown velocity v0 ( i ) (t ) of the leader can be
Since the communication relationships also exist in
different groups, a group in multi-agent system consists of the parameterized as
fi ( xi t ) iT ( xi t )i i 1 2 N (5)
set of inter-agent and the set of intra-agent. Let V((ti)) be the
and
set of inter-agent with V((ti)) V((ti)) . Agent i is called
v0 (i ) (t ) 0T (i ) (t )0 (i ) (6)
(i )
inter-agent if agent i V (t ) , and agent i is called intra-agent where 0 ( i ) (t ) , i ( xi t ) R m
are some basis function
(i ) (i )
if agent i V (t ) \V
(t ) . From [13], we have the following vectors and 0 ( i ) , i R are unknown constant parameter
m

lemma: vectors which will be estimated later.

Let the estimate of 0 ( i ) be 0 (i ) and v0 ( i ) (t ) be
Lemma 2. If node i is the intra-act agent, namely,
(i ) (i ) v 0 ( i )(t ) . Then v 0 ( i )(t ) can be expressed as
i V (t ) \V
(t ) , then the following results hold
v 0 (i )(t ) 0 (i ) (t ) 0 (i ) i 1 2 N
T
(7)
c j 1 lij x0 ( i ) (t ) 0 .
N

Similarly, let the estimates of i and fi ( xi t ) be i and

Lemma 3. (Barbalats lemma) If V ( x t ) satisfies the f i ( xi t ) , respectively. Then f i ( xi t ) can be expressed as

f i ( xi t ) i ( xi t ) i i 1 2 N
T
following conditions: (8)
(1) V ( x t ) is lower bounded;
A. Adaptive group consensus algorithm design
(2) V ( x t ) is negative semi-definite;
For multi-agent systems (1), let [tk tk 1 ), k 01 2 be
(3) V ( x t ) is uniformly continuous in time or V ( x t ) is
an infinite time interval sequence, where t0 0 is the initial

33 www.erpublication.org
 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-4, Issue-3, March 2016
time instant, T0 tk 1 tk T , and T0 T are some positive leaders. When agent i is inter-agent, the state information of
constants. some group leaders is needed.
Suppose that each time interval [tk tk 1 ) k 01 2 , is B. Stability analysis
divided into a finite time interval sequence Let ei (t ) xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t ) , from Lemma 2, we have
[tk0 tk1 ) [tkl tkl 1 ) [tklk 1 tklk ) e(t ) x x 0
where tk tk0 tk 1 tklk for some integer lk 0 , f u v (11)
t l 1
k t 0 l lk 1 , 0 is a positive constant, the
l
k c( L (t ) B ( t ) )e T
lk 1
so-called dwell time. t t t 0
k
1
are the time instants at
k k 0
which the time-varying graph switches, in other words, in where f ( f1 f 2 f N )T , is a regressor
f
each such time subinterval [tkl tkl 1 ) the switching graph
0
G ( t ) is time invariant and connected. matrix, 0 diag{0 (1) 0 (2) 0 ( N ) } ,
Denote the stack column vector ( x1 x2 xN )T of f
f diag{1 2 N } , 0 0 0 col( 0 (i ) ) and
xi (t ) i 1 2 N by col( xi ) . Let x col( xi ) ,
f f f col( i ) , in which 0 (i ) 0 (i ) 0 (i ) and
u col(ui ) , 0 col( 0 (i ) ) , f col( i ) ,
0 col( 0 (i )) , f col( i ) , i 1 2 N . The adaptive i i i . We have the error dynamics of system as
follows:
group consensus algorithm is proposed as follows.
Control Laws: e cH (t ) e T

ui (t ) c aij (t )[ x j (t ) xi (t )] (12)
H (t ) e
j N i ( t ) c
N
L ( t ) B ( t ) , and the matrix H ( t ) of graph
cbi (t )[ xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t )] c lij x0 ( j ) (t )
where H (t )
j 1 G ( t ) has the well-known properties [22] as follows:

0 (i ) (t ) 0 (i ) i ( xi t ) i i V((ti))
T
T

(9) Lemma 4. (1) Matrix H ( t ) has nonnegative eigenvalues;
u (t ) c
i aij (t )[ x j (t ) xi (t )]
j N i ( t )
(2) Matrix H ( t ) is positive definite if and only if graph G ( t )
is connected.
cbi (t )[ xi (t ) x0 ( i ) (t )] 0T ( i ) (t ) 0 ( i )
Let p min ( H p ) , p P be the smallest non-zero
i ( xi t )T i, i V((ti)) \ V((ti)) , eigenvalue of positive semi-definite matrix H p . Then we
where c 0 is a constant number, bi (t ) 0 and let B (t ) be have min min{ p p P} is positive.
a diagonal matrix with diagonal elements We assume that the regression matrix is persistently
{b1 (t ) b2 (t ) bN (t )} . exciting (PE) [23], i.e., there exist two positive reals 0 and
Parameter adaptive laws: such that

0 ( i ) c 0 ( i ) (t ){ aij (t )[ x j (t ) xi (t )]
t 0
t
T d I 0 t 0 (13)
j N i ( t )

N where I is an appropriate dimension identity matrix. The PE

bi (t )[ xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t )] lij x0 ( j ) (t )}, condition has another explanation, that is
j 1 t 0

( x t ){ T T d t 0 1 (14)
i c i i aij (t )[ x j (t ) xi (t )]
j N i ( t )
t

By introducing the PE condition, the parameter

convergence, that is,
N

bi (t )[ xi (t ) x 0 ( i ) (t )] lij x0 ( j ) (t )}
lim 0 ( i ) 0 ( i ) 0
j 1 (10) t
(15)
i V((ti)) , lim i i 0, i 1 2 N
t

0 ( i ) c 0 (i ) (t ){ jN (t ) aij (t )[ x j (t ) xi (t )] for any initial condition 0 (i )(0) i(0) i 1 2 N , can be

i

bi (t )[ xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t )]} guaranteed. A detailed analysis will be given later.

Theorem 1. Consider the multi-agent systems (2)-(3) in
i c i ( xi t ){ jNi (t ) aij (t )[ x j (t ) xi (t )]

networks with undirected topologies. Suppose that 0 ( i ) ,

bi (t )[ xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t )]} 0 (i ) , i , and i i 1 2 N are uniformly bounded and
(i ) (i )
i V (t ) \ V ( t ) the PE condition is satisfied. Under the control law (9) and
where 0 is a constant number. the adaptive law (10), group consensus of the multi-agent
Remark 2. The controllers and adaptive law proposed in (9) system is reached globally, uniformly and asymptotically, in
and (10) depend on the relative position information between the meanwhile, the global, uniform, and asymptotical
neighboring agents and the state information of the group parameter convergence is also guaranteed.

34 www.erpublication.org
 Adaptive Group Consensus of Multi-agent in Networks with Switching Networks

Proof. Consider a Lyapunov function candidate (t ) . (26)

1 T 1 T
V (t ) e H pe (16) To prove (26), we equivalently show by contradiction that,
2c 2 for any 0 , a time T1 0 such that
for systems (15). Except for the switching instants, V (t ) is
(t ) t T1 , (27)
continuous and differentiable .
Consider a time interval [tkl tkl 1 ] with switching graph does not exist.
Consider a time intervals [tk tk 1 ) [tk tk Tk ) with
G p p P , included in the time interval [tk tk 1 ] . The time
T0 Tk T and construct the following function
derivative of this Lyapunov function candidate along the
trajectory of the system (12) is 1
((t ) t ) [T (t Tk )(t Tk ) T (t )(t )] (28)
V (t ) eT H p2 e (17) 2
From the definition of the Lyapunov function candidate
Due to the fact that H p is positive definite from Lemma 4,
(16), lim e(t ) 0 and lim V (t ) V () , we have
t t
there exists an orthogonal matrix U p such that
lim (t )(t ) V () , where is a positive constant.
T

U p H pU Tp p diag{1p p2 pN } (18) t

Thus, lim ((t ) t ) 0 . Therefore, for 1 0 , there

where 1p p2 pN are the N positive eigenvalues of H p . t

Let e U p e , we have exists t2 0 such that

V (t ) e T p 2 e ((t ) t ) ((t ) t ) 1 t t T2 . (29)

min
2 T
(19) Calculating the time derivative of the function ((t ) t )
ee
0. define in (34) at the time instant t [tk tk 1 ) , we have
Therefore, lim V (t ) V () exists. ((t ) t )
t

Consider the infinite sequence {V (tk ) k 01 } Based 1 T

[ (t Tk )(t Tk ) T (t Tk )(t Tk )]
on the Cauchys convergence criteria, for any 0 , there 2
1 T
exists 0 such that V (tk 1 ) V (tk ) , i.e., [ (t )(t ) T (t )(t )]
2
t
t
V (t )dt . T (t Tk )(t Tk ) T (t )(t )
t Tk d
From (19), we have [ T ( )( )]d (30)
tk 1 tk 1 t d
V (t )dt min
2
e (t )e(t )dt ,
T
(20)
tk tk t Tk d
( TH p e)d
and due to tkl 1 tkl , then t d c
tkl tkl 1 t Tk 2
eT (t )e (t )dt l eT (t )e(t )dt (21) ( eT H p T H p TH p2 )ed
tkl tk min
2 t c2
t Tk

c t
Therefore, H p d
T T
t
lim eT ( s)e( s)ds 0 . (22)
t t Q1 Q2
From (12), (16), (19), it follows that e(t ) , 0(t ) , f (t ) From (18), we have
and e are all uniformly bounded, and from the assumption of H p U Tp pU p min I (31)
the theorem, 0 ( i ) , 0 (i ) , i and i are also uniformly Then
bounded. Therefore the function e (t )e (t ) is uniformly T t T
Q2 min TT d (32)
continuous. From Lemma 3, we have lim e( s )T e( s ) 0 , then c t

t
From (13), it follows that
lim e(t ) 0 (23)
T (33)
T
t 1 t T T t T
2 t d t
T
Thus, lim xi (t ) x0 (i ) (t ) 0, i 1 2 N . (t ) (t )
t

In the following, we prove that and

t T
lim (t ) 0 (24)
d .
T T 2
t
(34)
t

for any initial condition (0) , i.e, for any 0 , there exist From the PE condition (14), we have
T 0 such that
min 2 t T1
Q2 (35)
(t ) t T (25) c
Since e , 0 , f , 0 , f are all bounded, there exists
for any initial condition (e(0) (0)) . t T
To prove (25), we first prove that, given any 0 and a positive constant M such that l1 M e d . Then we
t

T 0 , for any e(0) and (0) , there exists t T such that have

35 www.erpublication.org
 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-4, Issue-3, March 2016
switching graph is time invariant and connected in the time
Q1 min 2 t T3 (35)
2c intervals [tkl tkl 1 ), l 0,1, , lk . Under the control law (9) and
From (29), (34) and (35), we have the adaptive law (10), we choose c 08 , 400 . The
simulation results are shown in Fig. 2, 3 and 4. Fig. 2 shows
min 2 0 t T4
((t ) t ) (36)
2c that the states of ten agents converge to the trajectories of the
where T4 max{T1 T2 T3 } . Thus, there exists a time interval two leaders, respectively, and Fig. 3 shows that over time the
tracking errors converge to zero. Fig. 4 shows that the
[tk j , tk j T ) with tk j T4 such that ((t ) t )
parameter convergence is also guaranteed. Note that the
interconnection graph of six agents is connected, and the
min 2 0 holds for t [tk j , tk j T ) due to the
4c regression matrix in this example satisfies the PE
sign-preserving property of continuous function. Integrating condition. Based on Theorem 1, it is expected that both
((t ) t ) from tk j to tk j T and selecting 1 consensus errors and parameter errors converge to zero
globally, uniformly and asymptotically.

min 2T , we have
4c
((tk j ) tk j ) ((tk j T ) tk j T ) 1 (37)
which contradicts (28). So, (26) holds. This completes the
proof of (25).
Because of lim e(t ) 0 , for any 0 there exists a time
t

T5 such that
c
e(t ) t T5 . (38) Fig. 1: The interconnection graph of six agents.
2
Since (25) holds, there exists a time T T5 such that
25
1
(T ) . (39)
2
20
From the initial conditions e(T ) and (T ) , according to
(16), (38) and (39), we have
Ten component s of x(t )

2
15
e(T ) (T ) t T
2
(40)
c
which implies (24). Therefore, the equilibrium point 10

(e ) 0 is attractive. Since (23) and (24) hold uniformly

for the initial time, it follows that the equilibrium point 5
(e ) 0 is globally uniformly asymptotically stable.

V. SIMULATIONS 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
time(sec)
In this section, an example to illustrate the algorithm is
given to verify our theory results. Consider a system consists Fig. 2: The trajectories of six agents converge to the
of six agents, and assume that iT ( xi t ) [ x sin(t ) x cos(t )]T . trajectories of the two leaders.
Then the nonlinear dynamics of the six agents are 4
fi ( xi t ) [ x sin(t ) x cos(t )]i i 1 2 6, (41) 3.5

and we pick i [ 55 7
2 T
] . 3

The six agents are divided into two groups. We assume that 2.5
Ten component s of e(t )

there is a virtual-leader in each group. The velocity of the 2

virtual-leaders in the first group is
v0 ( i ) (t ) [sin(t ) cos(t )] 0 ( i ) i 1 2 3
1.5
(42)
1
where we choose 0 (i ) [ 3
6
53 ]T . The velocity of the
0.5
virtual-leaders in the second group is
0
v0 (i ) (t ) [cos(t ) sin(t )] 0 (i ) i 4 5 6 (43)
-0.5
and choose 0 (i ) [ 53 11 T
3
] .
-1
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
We assume that all possible switching graphs are
time(sec)
{G1 G2 G3 } shown in Fig. 1. The switching graphs switch
Fig. 3: Consensus errors converge to zero under (9) and (10).
according to G1 G2 G3 G1 . However, each

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 Adaptive Group Consensus of Multi-agent in Networks with Switching Networks

[12] Y. Shang, Group consensus of multi-agent systems in directed

100
80
The component of paramet er errors
60
40
20
0 [15] W. Sun, Y. Bai, R. Jia, R. Xiong, J. Chen, Multi-group consensus via
-20
-40
-60
-80
0 50
Fig. 4: Parameter errors converge to zero applying (9) and
(10).
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the group consensus problem is investigated for
the first-order multi-agent systems with unknown and
non-identical nonlinear dynamics. By using adaptive design
method and pinning control, an adaptive group consensus
algorithm is proposed. Algebraic graph theory is used to
model the interconnection relations between agents, and we
conduct stability analysis by using the Barbalats lemma and
Lyapunov techniques. The connectedness of the switching
graphs property ensures group consensus achieving and the
PE condition plays a key role the in the analysis of the
parameter convergence. The simulation example illustrates
our algorithm, and validates our theory.
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REFERENCES Yujuan Cheng is a master student in College of

Science in China Three Gorges University. Her
[1] Y. Hong, J. Hu, L. Gao, Tracking control for multi-agent consensus
research interests include nonlinear control theory,
with an active leader and variable topology, Automatica, vol. 42, 2006,
multi-agent systems, and software engineering.
pp. 11771182.
.
[2] R. Olfati-Saber, R. M. Murray, Consensus problems in networks of
agents with switching topology and time-delays, IEEE Transactions
on Automatic Control, vol. 49, 2004, pp. 15201533..
[3] W. Ren, R. W. Beard, Consensus seeking in multi-agent systems
under dynamically changing interaction topologies, IEEE
Hui Yu received his bachelors degree in
Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 50, 2005, pp. 655661.
mathematics from Central China Normal University,
[4] W. J. Xiong, Daniel W. C. Ho, X. H. Yu, Saturated finite interval
Wuhan, China in 1991, his masters degree in system
iterative learning for tracking of dynamic systems with
analysis and integration from East China Normal
HNN-structural output, IEEE Transaction Neural Networks and
University, Shanghai, China in 1999, and his Ph.D.
Learning Systems, doi: 10.1109/TNNLS.2015.2448716.
degree in Automatic control from Huazhong
[5] W. J. Xiong, W. W. Yu, J. H. Lv, X. H. Yu, Fuzzy modelling and
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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in 2007. From 2011 to 2012, he was visiting the
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