Talk 1: Recent Advances and New Challenges for Distributed Cooperative Control and Optimization in Complex Networks 

 

Abstract: In this talk, the multi-agent collective behaviors and some of their potential applications are briefly reviewed. In particular, the consensus problem in multi-agent systems with first-order, second-order, and higher-order dynamics is investigated in details. Then, some extensions and recent progress for general protocols in multi-agent systems will be given. Furthermore, the new directions and challenges for the research work on this topic will be discussed.

 

 

Talk 2: Distributed Optimization in Networks

Abstract: Distributed optimization is solved by the mutual collaboration among a group of agents, which arises in various domains such as machine learning, resource allocation, location in sensor networks and so on. In this talk, we introduce two kinds of distributed optimization problems: (i) the agents share a common decision variable and local constraints; (ii) the agents have their individual decision variables but that are coupled by global constraints. With respect to the specific optimization structures from these two kinds of optimization problems, we design the corresponding continuous-time distributed algorithms by combining convex optimization theory with the consensus techniques. Then, we provide the corresponding convergence analysis on the proposed algorithms based on non-smooth analysis, Lyapunov stability and control techniques, and show their individual advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we make a summary and suggest future work.

 

Talk 3: Cooperative Anti-Disturbance Control of Complex Networked Systems

Abstract: In the past few decades, distributed cooperation in multi-agent systems has received much attention because of its applications in industrial manufacturing and even dangerous missions, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), distributed sensor networks, space exploitation, and marine exploration. Noticing the wide application of distributed cooperation in multi-agent systems and the universality of the existence of disturbance, the research on distributed cooperative anti-disturbance control of multi-agent systems appears to be an emergency. The key idea is to design distributed anti-disturbance control on each individual agent to collectively achieve the global anti-disturbance control goal. In the past decade, many excellent works have been done on this topic.

In this talk, we review some main results and recent progress in distributed cooperative anti-disturbance control (DCADC) of multi-agent systems. In particular, this talk is concerned with some kinds of DCADC methods, such as distributed cooperative variable structure control, distributed cooperative sliding mode control, distributed cooperative disturbance-observer-based control, distributed cooperative output regulation control approaches, etc. Some future research topics regarding DCADC methods are also pointed out.