Synchronization of nonlinear heterogeneous multiple agents in diverse patterns

Cooperative control of a network of multiple agents with nonlinear heterogeneous dynamics has attracted considerable attention over the past years. In this paper, a decentralized control algorithm is proposed for synchronization of such a network in diverse collective motion patterns. With the aid of a group of deliberately designed linear homogeneous reference models, the synchronization problem is converted into a class of regulation problem. The regulation problem is hence solved using nonlinear output feedback control technique. The conversion and hence the decentralized synchronization algorithm are valid when the multi-agent system is jointly connected in terms of its time varying network topologies.