Adaptive second-order consensus of networked mobile agents with nonlinear dynamics

We investigate second-order consensus of multiple nonlinear dynamical mobile agents with a virtual leader in a dynamic proximity network. We assume that only a small Fraction of agents in the group have access to the information about the position and velocity of the virtual leader through, for example, certain pre-designed communication mechanism such as wireless broadcasting or sensing. To avoid fragmentation, we propose a connectivity-preserving second-order consensus algorithm. Under the assumption that the initial network is connected, we introduce local adaptation strategies for both the weights on the velocity navigational feedback and the velocity coupling strengths that enable all agents to synchronize with the virtual leader even when only one agent is informed, without requiring any knowledge of the agent dynamics. We finally provide some convincing simulation results to illustrate the theoretical results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.