Event-based broadcasting for

multi-agent average consensus

Georg S. Seyboth, Dimos V. Dimarogonas,
Karl H. Johansson

Introduction
Why do we need it?
Former research
This paper in comparison

Why do we need it?

Growing interest in wireless networks high flexibility

and low installation cost.

Multi-vehicle coordination.

However

Control over networks with limited resources is a

challenging task.

Communication is expensive shared communication

resources, potential effects of information exchange
on power consumption of remote components.

It will be shown that

Event-based scheduling is beneficial for cooperative

networked control and can facilitate the efficient
usage of the shared resources

Former research
The cooperative control task under consideration is average
consensus
We learned about in class (consensus protocol for singleintegrator agents) and can further be read on in Olfati-Saber
and Murray (2004).
We saw in our homework (consensus protocol for doubleintegrator agents) and can further be read on in Ren and
Atkins (2007).
In practice those control laws have to be implemented on
digital platforms
The traditional method is time-scheduled periodic sampling
measurements are taken periodically according to a constant
sampling period and the controllers are updated
synchronously. Implementation is investigated in:
Xie, Liu, Wang and Jia (2009); Ren and Cao (2008)

Former research cont.

Event-based sampling is an alternative to traditional periodic
sampling

The idea is to sample and update the controller only when

measurements cross certain thresholds.

Outperforms periodic sampling in many scenarios - strm

and Bernhardsson (1999), rzn (1999), Miskowicz (2006).

Application to networks is done in Mazo and Cao (2011), Mazo

and Tabuada (2011), Wang and Lemmon (2008, 2011) where a
triggering mechanism based on state norm is being used.

Both Mazo and Tabuada (2011) and Wang and Lemmon (2011)
suggest that event-based scheduling reduces the number of
transmissions required in networked control systems.

Former research cont.

Event-based scheduling seems to be suitable for
cooperative control of multi-agent systems over networks
with limited resources. However, only a few studies have
considered this topic

An event-based implementation of the consensus

protocol is developed in Dimarogonas, Frazzoli, and
Johansson (2012). Where all agents continuously
monitor their neighbors states.

This paper in comparison

In contrast to Dimarogonas et al. (2012), measurement

broadcasts are scheduled in an event-based fashion,
such that continuous monitoring of the neighbors
states is no longer required.

In Wang and Lemmon (2011) each subsystem is aware

of the equilibrium state to be stabilized. In the present
work, the consensus point is unknown to the agents,
which makes it more challenging to find suitable
trigger conditions.

Each agent decides based on the difference of its

current state and its latest broadcast state, called the
measurement error, when it has to send a new value.
An event is triggered whenever the norm of the
measurement error crosses a certain threshold.

Background and problem

statement
Preliminaries (ISS)
Graph theory usage
Problem statement

Preliminaries

A scalar continuous function (r) defined for r [0, a]

is said to belong to class K if it is strictly increasing and
(0) = 0, and it is said to belong to class K if it is
defined for all r 0 and (r) as r .
A scalar continuous function (r, s) defined for r [0,
a], s [0,] is said to belong to class KL if for each
fixed s it belongs to class K and for each fixed r it is
decreasing in s and (r, s) 0 as s , cf., Khalil
(2002).
A dynamical system with state x and input w is called
input-to-state stable (ISS) if there exist a class KL
function and a class K function such that x(t)
(x(0), t) + (w[0,t]) for all t 0, see Sontag
(1989). For linear systems, ISS is equivalent to global
asymptotic stability of the unforced system (Khalil,
2002).

Graph theory usage

Consider a graph G = {V,} consisting of a set of

vertices (or nodes) V = {1,,N} and edges .

For undirected graphs, L is symmetric and positive

semi-definite, i.e., L = LT 0. The row sums of L are
zero. Thus, the vector of ones 1 is an eigenvector
corresponding to eigenvalue 1(G) = 0, i.e., L1 = 0. For
connected graphs, L has exactly one zero eigenvalue,
and the eigenvalues can be listed in increasing order
0 = 1(G) < 2(G) N(G). The second eigenvalue
2(G) is called the algebraic connectivity.

Lemma: Suppose L is the Laplacian of an undirected,

connected graph G. Then, for all t 0 and all vectors
v RN with 1Tv = 0, it holds that eLtv e2(G)tv.

Problem statement

Assumption: Graph G is undirected and connected.

Single-integrator agents:
x i t ui t , i V , where xi(t) R is the state and
ui(t) R its control input.
Double-integrator agents:
0
xi t
0

1
0
xi t ui t , i V , where
0
1

xi(t) = [i(t), i(t)]TR2 .

In both cases, the agents are coordinated in a

distributed fashion, i.e., ui(t) depends only on
information from neighbors j Ni . The communication
over each edge may be subject to a constant timedelay 0.

Problem statement cont.

Each agent consists of a controller and dynamics as shown in

the figure:

The controller of agent i monitors its own state xi(t)

continuously. Based on local information, it decides when to
broadcast its current state over the network.
The latest broadcast state of agent
i given by
i i
i
i
i
x i t x i tk , t tk , tk 1 , where t0 , t1 ,... is the sequence of
event times of agent i.
Whenever agent i transmits its state or receives a new state
value from one of its neighbors, it re-computes its control ui
immediately.

Problem statement cont.

The problem: Find a triggering rule that

determines, based on local information, when
agent i has to trigger and broadcast a new
state value to its neighbors, such that all
agents states converge to the average of their
initial conditions.

Single-integrator agents
Construction
Theorem
Remarks

Construction

With the stack vectors x = [x1,,xN]T and

u = [u1,,uN]T , the multi-agent system with
single integrator agents can be written as
x t u t , x(0) = x RN.
0
Recall that the continuous distributed control
law ui t xi t x j t globally asymptotically
jN
solves the average consensus problem, i.e.,
xi t 1 N xi 0 for all i V as t .
iV
i

The closed-loop system can be written as

x t Lx t .

Construction cont.

An event-based implementation of the continuous

distributed control law is proposed, given by
ui t xi t x j t or in stack vector form u t Lx t .
jNi

A trigger function fi() is defined for each agent

which takes values in R and depends on local
information only, i.e., on time t and the true and
broadcast states xi t , xi t .

An event for agent i is triggered as soon as the

trigger condition f i t , xi t , xi t 0 is fulfilled.

For each i V and t 0, a measurement error is

defined ei t xi t xi t . With e = [e1,,eN]T, the
closed-loop system is described by
x t Lx t L x t e t

Construction cont.

Using the measurement error definition its proposed to use

the following trigger functions f i t , ei t ei t hi t , with
thresholds hi t : R0 R of the form hi t c0 c1 exp t .
Based on the original idea of event-based control in strm
and Bernhardsson (1999) - trigger an event and close the
feedback loop whenever the state deviates from the
equilibrium and crosses a predefined threshold c0, say.
Let a(t) = (1/N)1Tx(t) be the average of all states. The
derivative of a(t) is a (t) = (1/N)1Tu(t) = 0 since
u(t) = Lx (t) has zero average, i.e., 1Tu(t) = 0T . Thus,
a(t) = a(0) = a for all t 0 and the state x(t) can be
decomposed according to x(t) = a1 + (t), where (t) is the
disagreement vector of the multi-agent system, i.e.,
1T(t) = 0.
From the Lemma presented before it follows that the rate
of convergence for single-integrator agents with continuous
distributed control law is at least 2(G), because
(t) = exp(Lt)(0) exp(2(G)t)(0).

Theorem

Consider the multi-agent system of singleintegrator agents xi t ui t , i V , with control

xi t x j t . Suppose the trigger
law ui t
jN
function is given by
i

f i t , ei t ei t c0 c1e t

with constants c0 0 and c1 0, c0 + c1 > 0, and

0 < < 2(G). Then, for all initial conditions
x0 RN , the closed-loop system does not
exhibit Zeno behavior. Moreover, the
disagreement vector of the closed-loop
system converges to a ball centered at the
origin with radius r = L N c0/2(G).

Remarks

The graph G is assumed to be undirected in this paper.

However, it can be shown that the theorem extends to
strongly connected and balanced directed graphs.
The radius r = L N c0/2(G) can be chosen arbitrarily
small since it scales with c0. For
c1 = 0 the density of events is independent of c0 for
large t, but for small t the inter-event intervals are
short if c0 is small. This motivates why c1 > 0 might be
suitable in practice.
The theorem states that the radius vanishes for c0 = 0.
The closed-loop system reaches average consensus
asymptotically in this case. The condition < 2(G) is
intuitive, because the states should converge faster
than the threshold decreases.
However, if c0 > 0, a positive lower bound on the interevent times exists for > 2(G) as well. Consequently,
knowledge of 2(G) is not necessary if c0 > 0.

Remarks cont.

The class of time-dependent trigger functions can be extended to

fi(t, ei(t)) = |ei(t)| hi(t) with clexp(t) hi(t) cuexp(t),
i V, where 0 < cl < cu and 0 < < 2(G).
Then, for all initial conditions x0 RN , the closed-loop system
does not exhibit Zeno behavior. Moreover, the disagreement vector
of the closed-loop system converges to the origin asymptotically.
This enlarges the class of suitable trigger functions compared to
the theorem and shows that the agents do not need to share the
same trigger function.
However, in this case or when c0 = 0, in order to choose an
appropriate trigger function, each agent has to be aware of 2(G).
This assumption can partly be avoided by using the lower bound
on 2(G) in terms of N and diameter d given by:
2(G) 4/(Nd) 4/(N(N 1)). Mohar (1991).
If is chosen smaller than this bound, then obviously < 2(G).
Therefore it is sufficient that each agent is aware of N or an upper
bound thereof.
A more advanced method to resolve this issue is through
distributed estimation of 2(G).

Delayed communication
Construction
Theorem
Remarks

Construction

From a practical point of view, the effect of

communication delays needs to be accounted for.
The disagreement dynamics are asymptotically
stable for e(t) = 0 and therefore ISS with respect to
e(t). This is consistent with the shown theorem,
which shows that (t) is bounded for bounded
e(t) and converges to zero asymptotically if e(t)
vanishes.
The ISS property is exploited in the analysis of the
delayed case.
Assuming a delay of 0 in all channels, the
control law is u(t) = Lx(t ) and ( t) = L(t
) Le(t )

Theorem

Consider the multi-agent system of singleintegrator agents xi t ui t , i V , with control

xi t x j t . Suppose the trigger
law ui t
jN
function is given by
i

f i t , ei t ei t c0 c1e t

with constants c0 0 and c1 0, c0 + c1 > 0, and

0 < < 2(G). Then, for all initial conditions
x0 RN , the closed-loop system does not
exhibit Zeno behavior. Moreover, the
disagreement vector of the closed-loop
system converges to a ball centered at the
origin with radius r = L N c0/2(G).

Remarks

The graph G is assumed to be undirected in this paper.

However, it can be shown that the theorem extends to
strongly connected and balanced directed graphs.
The radius r = L N c0/2(G) can be chosen arbitrarily
small since it scales with c0. For
c1 = 0 the density of events is independent of c0 for
large t, but for small t the inter-event intervals are
short if c0 is small. This motivates why c1 > 0 might be
suitable in practice.
The theorem states that the radius vanishes for c0 = 0.
The closed-loop system reaches average consensus
asymptotically in this case. The condition < 2(G) is
intuitive, because the states should converge faster
than the threshold decreases.
However, if c0 > 0, a positive lower bound on the interevent times exists for > 2(G) as well. Consequently,
knowledge of 2(G) is not necessary if c0 > 0.

Simulations
Simulation network
Single-Integrator agents
Double-Integrator agents

Simulation network

A network of five agents with G as shown here is

considered.

The theoretical results are illustrated through

simulations and the event-based control strategy is
compared to traditional time-scheduled control.

Single-integrator agents

A network of five agents with G as shown here is

considered.

The theoretical results are illustrated through

simulations and the event-based control strategy is
compared to traditional time-scheduled control.

Single-integrator agents cont.

A network of five agents with G as shown here is

considered.

The theoretical results are illustrated through

simulations and the event-based control strategy is
compared to traditional time-scheduled control.

Double-integrator agents

A network of five agents with G as shown here is

considered.

The theoretical results are illustrated through

simulations and the event-based control strategy is
compared to traditional time-scheduled control.

Summary and future work

???

Double-integrator agents
Construction
Theorem

Construction

Consider the multi-agent system (1) with

control law (4). Suppose the trigger function is
given by fi(t, ei(t)) = |ei(t)| c0 + c1e t
(7) with constants c0 0 and c1 0, c0 + c1 >
0, and 0 < < 2(G). Then, for all initial
conditions x0 R N , the closed-loop system
does not exhibit Zeno behavior. Moreover, the
disagreement vector of the closed-loop
system converges to a ball centered at the
origin with radius r = L Nc0/2(G).

Theorem

Consider the multi-agent system (2) with

control law (18). Suppose the trigger function
is given by fi(t, e ,i(t), e ,i(t)) =
e
,i(t) e ,i(t)
c0 + c1e t (22)
with constants c0 0 and c1 0, c0 + c1 > 0,
and 0 < < |Re(3( ))|. Then, for all initial
conditions 0, 0 R N , the closed-loop
system does not exhibit Zeno behavior.
Moreover, the disagreement vector of the
closed-loop system converges to a ball
centered at the origin with radius r = c0cV L
2N/|Re(3( ))|. (23)