Cooperative control of networked robots on a dynamic platform in the presence of communication delays

This paper presents an analysis of the synchronization and consensus problems of networked manipulators operating on an underactuated dynamic platform in the presence of communication delays. The proposed formulation does not require detailed information about the system model. A theoretical formulation based on input-output maps of functional differential equations shows that the control system's behavior matches closely that of a non-adaptive reference system. The tracking synchronization objective is achieved despite the effects of the communication delay and the unknown dynamics of the platform. When there is no common desired trajectory, the modified controller drives all robots to average consensus for an unsigned graph and to bipartite consensus for a structurally balanced signed digraph. In addition, a leader-follower scheme is proposed that allows for the control of the constant and time-varying consensus values. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed control algorithms. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.