A survey of consensus problems in multi-agent coordination

TLDR

Consensus or agreement problems, a distributed solution to multi‑agent coordination, have been extensively studied in the literature. This survey aims to promote research in multi‑agent cooperative control by reviewing consensus problems and proposing future research directions and open problems. It summarizes theoretical results on consensus under both time‑invariant and dynamically changing topologies and examines applications of consensus protocols to multi‑agent coordination.

Abstract

As a distributed solution to multi-agent coordination, consensus or agreement problems have been studied extensively in the literature. This paper provides a survey of consensus problems in multi-agent cooperative control with the goal of promoting research in this area. Theoretical results regarding consensus seeking under both time-invariant and dynamically changing information exchange topologies are summarized. Applications of consensus protocols to multiagent coordination are investigated. Future research directions and open problems are also proposed.