Cooperative Control-Based Task Assignments for Multiagent Systems with Intermittent Communication

Efficient task assignments can significantly improve agent management and reduce communication load and energy consumption. This article investigates the cooperative control problem for multiagent systems with an active task assignment strategy, in which whether an agent exchanges the information with neighbors depends on a perceived mission. By defining a set of missions, a task assignment mechanism for cooperative control problem is first proposed, in which the tasks will be scheduled by intermittent communication signals associated with the actual optimization requirements. By allowing appropriate task assignment conditions, a class of tracking cooperative control protocol is designed and accordingly, the stability of the closed-loop systems under the intermittent communication will be guaranteed. We also consider a case that the communication links between the followers and the leader can be optimized. To maximize the quality of information interaction, a leadership competition mechanism is introduced to design the tracking cooperative control protocol. As an application, cooperative surveillance using a group of rotary-wing air vehicles is considered. Numerical simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.