Capstone Project

REPORT

Design Analysis of Multi-Agent Synchronous System

Lalit Kishore Sharma – 101505057

Luv Vermani – 101505058

Prashant Gupta – 101505072

Rishab Madan – 101555010

Under the Guidance of: -

Mr. Venkata Karteek (Assistant Professor) EIED, Thapar University

Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering Department, Thapar University, Patiala

(Declared as Deemed-to-be-University u/s 3 of the UGC Act., 1956)
Post Box No. 32, Patiala – 147004 Punjab (India)
Introduction
In this connected world, importance of distributed system doesn’t need to be stressed upon. Machines
can operate much more efficiently with a seamless flow of data between every agent involved. A multi-
agent system is a composite system, made of many inter dependent intelligent agents. Usually,
cumbersome tasks can’t be performed by single agent; they need multiple agents. Connectivity is thus
of prime importance. Other purposes such as cost reduction, better efficiency, new capabilities, more
reliability, and so on.

One of the most important problems in coordinated control is unanimity of a multi-agent system, which
deals with algorithms needed for the convergence of agents [1, 2]. Multi-agent systems have gained
popularity because of application ranging from: - robotics, unmanned aerial and sub-aquatic vehicles,
automatic traffic signals, wireless sensor networks, etc.

However, most of control laws have been designed to resolve consensus problems in linear multi-agent
systems [1, 2, 3–9]. In linear systems, eigen values of graph Laplacian play a vital role in calculating,
whether the network of agents stabilize. Since nonlinearities are inevitable in most of the practical
applications, nonlinear agents and the corresponding control laws are being considered recently [10–
12]. Multi-agent consensus problems with high order agents, changing topologies, time-delays (time lag
and communication time), non-linearity etc., received major scrutiny [4, 5] after the foundational results
given by authors in [1, 2].

Olfati-Saber et al. [2] started the analysis of time-delay effects on multi-agent systems and gave an
upper bound for first order agents considering constant uniform communication and input time-delays.
Afterwards, it was broadened to systems with first order agents and uniformly varied time delay [6],
various delays [9, 13], second order agents with constant time-delays [8, 14] and system with second
order agents with non-uniform delay [11].

While designing distributed control strategies for multi-agent systems, various practical limitations have
to be assessed to procure sufficient performance upon realization. Limited communication capability of
the agents is of prime importance. Initial results assume that each agent can continuously obtain
information from its neighboring agents [15]. But, finite bandwidth of the communication channels and
the energy consumption concerns, agents cannot communicate with their neighbors continuously.
Keeping this in mind, many strategies have been suggested to reduce the communication resources and
save the communication burden using techniques such as sampled-data control [16], event-triggered
control [17] and intermittent control [18]. Because of accessibility and efficacy, sampled-data distributed
control has been considerably studied in recent years. Consensus problems for continuous-time second-
order agents were addressed in a sampled-data setting in [16], [18], [19]. Using only sampled position
information, consensus problems of second-order multi-agent systems were studied in [20]. In [21],
consensus of linear multi-agent systems with sampled output measurements under jointly-connected
topologies was studied. In [22], consensus tracking for heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems was
attained via asynchronous sampled-data communication.

To be continued…

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NEED ANALYSIS

1. Accessibility – With the help of this we can optimize the output of any system which has inter
dependency on other systems. It should be easy to access and share information amongst various
agents of the systems, so that they can work in sync to achieve desired objective.
2. Inefficient Organizational structure – With better interaction among the machines, the need to set
up command center is eliminated, thus a matrix like work structured can be implemented, using
network topology (graph theory).
3. Accuracy – With better information exchange the accuracy of the system increases. As time delay
(lag and communication time), one of the biggest problems can be addressed.
4. Parallel computation – Faster operations can be achieved by using techniques like parallel
computation, which inherently a characteristic of distributed system.
5. Risk Minimization – In Monolithic systems there exists a single failure node, Multiple agent system
remove this drawback. All sub-systems are connected through a defined network topology, any
malfunctioning node can be skipped in the operational flow.
6. Scalability – Addition of new agents is easier in Distributed system than a centralized monolithic
system. Practical systems require some amount of flexibility in their design.
7. Automation – Futuristic technologies like IOT, blockchain would need to be incorporated in further
work. This can be achieved with the help of decentralized network which forms the basis for this
network.
8. Smart Grid – Smart Grid is a novel paradigm in the sphere of power generation using renewable
energy alternatives, real time monitoring of energy demands and power production is required to
bring efficiency in the process.
9. Advance Techniques – Newer more advanced machine learning techniques such as AI, deep
learning, neural net can be implemented on such a system, which eliminate human error, give
unheralded optimized outputs.

PROBLEM DEFINITION
AIM
To obtain the uniform speed of the motors/same initial shaft position and trying to find the
limiting maximum time limit for a given control input in order to achieve the desirable output.

OBJECTIVES
 Improve already existing solutions for distributed control systems.
 Asynchronous working of turbines can lead to improper function of windmills.
 Lack of communication amongst devices can lead to faulty operations.
 Futuristic technologies like IOT, AI can’t be implemented on centralized systems.

DELIVERABLES
Development of a stable 2nd order multi-agent synchronous system with maximum limiting
time lag or varying input control unit.

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Time Line Chart

Work Distribution Amongst Team Members (Until Now)

Identification and formulation of project – Everyone
Literature Review – Everyone
Report – Luv Vermani (101505058), Lalit Kishore Sharma (101505057)
PPT – Rishab Madan (101555010), Luv Vermani (101505058), Prashant Gupta
(101505072)

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References
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