Topology simplification strategy for connected multi-agent systems
Xiaoli Li, Yugeng Xi, Xiaojun Geng · International Journal of Modelling Identification and Control · 2011
Some applications of multi-agent systems require the whole group of agents to be spread into the environment from initially compact connection configurations; as a result, the group connection topology tends to be sparser as the agents move. On the other hand, preserving group connectedness is often regarded as a fundamental necessity for networked operations. To take requirements of both dispersion and connectedness into consideration, a distributed algorithm of 'cutting off' redundant edges based on local information is developed in this paper. With this algorithm, a simplified connection graph is extracted from the actual communication topology, which keeps the connectedness of the actual topology with less but robust communication links. The performance of the algorithm is analysed and simulated. Finally, we apply this distributed algorithm in solving a connected dispersion problem which spreads out the agents while simultaneously maintaining their connectedness; and its effectiveness is shown by simulations.