Switching Control of a Modified Leader-Follower Team of Agents under the Leader and Network Topological Changes

In this paper the existence of a common Lyapunov function for stability is guaranteed in a switching network of agents. The objective of the team is to achieve consensus in a modifiedleader follower team while the team structure is changing during the mission. The stability of the team dynamics is guaranteed for networks with both balanced or unbalanced describing graphs with directional communication links. Although the original design strategy is based on an optimal control approach, for determining a common Lyapunov function the optimal gains have to be reselected. However, by introducing a criterion for control gains selection, a desirable performance can still be achieved. In this paper, we concentrate on one of the many possible criteria, namely performance-control effort criterion in details. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance and capabilities of the team in presence of a switching structure and switching leader scenarios.