Bipartite tracking of homogeneous and heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems

In this paper, we consider bipartite tracking of linear multi-agent systems with a leader. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems are investigated. The communication between agents is modelled by a directed signed graph, where the negative (positive) edges represent the antagonistic (cooperative) interactions among agents. Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)-based approach is used to derive the distributed protocol for the follower agent to achieve bipartite tracking of the leader. It is shown that solving the bipartite tracking problem over the structurally balanced signed graph is equivalent to solving the cooperative tracking problem over a corresponding graph with nonnegative edge weights. This bridges the gap between the newly raised bipartite tracking problem and the well-studied cooperative tracking problem. Three novel control protocols are proposed for both cooperative and bipartite output tracking of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems. Numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of our control protocols.