Triangular Networks for Resilient Formations

Abstract

Consensus algorithms allow multiple robots to achieve agreement on estimates of variables in a distributed manner, hereby coordinating the robots as a team, and enabling applications such as formation control and cooperative area coverage. These algorithms achieve agreement by relying only on local, nearest-neighbor communication. The problem with distributed consensus, however, is that a single malicious or faulty robot can control and manipulate the whole network. The objective of this paper is to propose a formation topology that is resilient to one malicious node, and that satisfies two important properties for distributed systems: (i) it can be constructed incrementally by adding one node at a time in such a way that the conditions for attachment can be computed locally, and (ii) its robustness can be verified through a distributed method by using only neighborhood-based information. Our topology is characterized by triangular robust graphs, consists of a modular structure, is fully scalable, and is well suited for applications of large-scale networks. We describe how our proposed topology can be used to deploy networks of robots. Results show how triangular robust networks guarantee asymptotic consensus in the face of a malicious agent.