Hybrid subgroup coordination of multi-agent systems via nonidentical information exchange

Multiple coordination corresponds to a diversified synchronous regime where different subgroups in one multi-agent system may emerge several distinct collective behaviors respectively. This paper is devoted to propose and analyze hybrid subgroup coordination of multi-agent systems under generic directed topologies. Due to unanticipated practical situations, agents in one subgroup are supposed to achieve a synchronous scenario asymptotically, such as average of agents’ initial states or its bounded region, while there is no agreement between any two distinct subgroups. Certain assumptions are imposed on the underlying topology for agents to evolve into several subgroups. Explicit distributed control algorithms are designed by adopting nonidentical extra-subgroup and intra-subgroup information exchange, and detailed convergence analysis is presented based on techniques of graph and matrix. Relevant simulation work is further carried out to illuminate the developed theoretical results.