Multi-agent systems with dynamical topologies: Consensus and applications

It is well known that a multi-agent system (MAS) is a specific system consisting of multiple interacting autonomous agents. Consensus or synchronization, as one of the typical collective behaviors, is ubiquitous in nature. Over the last decades, consensus has been widely investigated in various disciplines, including mathematics, physics, biology, engineering, and social sciences. In particular, consensus of MAS with dynamical topology is an emerging new topic motivated by many real-world applications, such as wireless communication and sensor networks. However, the collective behavior of MAS with dynamical topology is very complex and cannot be easily analyzed by the traditional approaches. To resolve the issue of dynamical topology, various techniques and methods have been developed in the last decade. This paper aims to review the main advances in the consensus of MAS with dynamical topology, including several fundamental models and the corresponding methods. The main purpose is to promote this emerging topic on multi-agent systems, with emphasis on the interdisciplinary interest from the circuits and systems engineering communities.