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Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems pp 1–21Cite as

Introduction to Synchronization in Nature and Physics and Cooperative Control for Multi-Agent Systems on Graphs

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Part of the book series: Communications and Control Engineering ((CCE))

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of synchronization behavior in nature and social systems. It is seen that distributed decisions made by each agent in a group based only on the information locally available to it can result in collective synchronized motion of an overall group. The idea of a communication graph that models the information flows in a multi-agent group is introduced. Mechanisms are given by which decisions can be made locally by each agent and informed leaders can guide collective behaviors by interacting directly with only a few agents. Synchronization and collective behavior phenomena are discussed in biological systems, physics and chemistry, and engineered systems. The dependence of collective behaviors of a group on the type of information flow allowed between its agents is emphasized. Various different graph topologies are presented including random graphs, small-world networks, scale-free networks, and distance formation graphs. The early work in cooperative control systems on graphs is outlined.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UTA Research Institute, University of Texas at Arlington, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

    Frank L. Lewis

  2. School of Electrical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China, People’s Republic

    Hongwei Zhang

  3. UTA Research Institute, University of Texas at Arlington, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

    Kristian Hengster-Movric

  4. Advanced Systems Engineering​, Danfoss Power Solutions (US) Company​, Ames, IA, USA

    Abhijit Das

Authors
  1. Frank L. Lewis
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  2. Hongwei Zhang
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  3. Kristian Hengster-Movric
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  4. Abhijit Das
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frank L. Lewis .

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag London

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Lewis, F., Zhang, H., Hengster-Movric, K., Das, A. (2014). Introduction to Synchronization in Nature and Physics and Cooperative Control for Multi-Agent Systems on Graphs. In: Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems. Communications and Control Engineering. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5574-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5574-4_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5573-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5574-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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