A framework for coordinated control of multi-agent systems

Abstract

In this chapter, the Coordinated Hybrid Agent (CHA) framework is introduced for the distributed control and coordination of multi-agent systems. In this framework, the control of multi-agent systems is regarded as achieving decentralized control and coordination of agents. Each agent is modeled as a CHA which is composed of an intelligent coordination layer and a hybrid control layer. The intelligent coordination layer takes the coordination input, plant input and workspace input. The intelligent coordination layer deals with the planning, coordination, decision-making and computation of the agent. The hybrid control layer of the framework takes the output of the intelligent coordination layer and generates discrete and continuous control signals to control the overall process. In order to verify the feasibility of the framework, experiments for multi-agent systems are implemented. The framework is applied to a multi-agent system consisting of an overhead crane, a mobile robot and a robot manipulator. The agents are able to cooperate and coordinate to achieve the global goal. In addition, the stability of systems modeled using the framework is also analyzed. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.