Template ENCIT2010


Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

Consensus via Adaptive Gain Controllers Considering  

 Relative Distances for Multi-Agent Systems 

Shun Ito
1,*

, Kazuki Miyakoshi
1
, Hidetoshi Oya

1
, Yoshikatsu Hoshi

1
, Shunya Nagai

2
 

1
Graduate School of Integrative Science and Engineering, Tokyo City University, Tokyo, Japan 

2
Department of Information Systems Creation, Kanagawa University, Kanagawa, Japan 

Received 25 April 2019; received in revised form 11 June 2019; accepted 28 July 2019 

Abstract 

In this paper, for multi-agent systems (MASs) with leader-follower structures, we present a linear matrix 

inequality (LMI)-based design method of an adaptive gain controller considering  relative distances between 

agents. The proposed adaptive gain controller consists of fixed gains and variable ones tuned by time-varying 

adjustable parameters. The objective of this paper is to derive enough conditions for the existence of the proposed 

adaptive gain controller which achieves consensus for each agent. The advantages of the proposed adaptive gain 

controller are as follows; The proposed controller can be obtained by solving LMI, and the proposed control 

system can achieve consensus and formation control, even if uncertainties are included in the information for 

relative distances. In this paper, we show that the design problem of the proposed adaptive gain controller can be 

reduced to the solvability of LMI. Finally, simple numerical examples are included to illustrate the effectiveness of 

the proposed adaptive gain controller for MASs. 

 

Keywords: multi-agent systems (MASs), consensus, relative distance, adaptive gain controller, linear matrix 

inequality (LMI) 
 

1. Introduction 

When we consider designing control systems for dynamical systems, it is necessary to derive a mathematical model for 

the controlled system, and one can see that optimal control is well known to be a powerful strategy in modern control theory. 

LQ regulator for linear systems is a typical controller, and it ensures asymptotical stability for closed-loop systems with good 

robustness provided that a mathematical model for a control system describes precisely [1,2]. However, there always exist 

some gaps between the mathematical model and the controlled system, and the gaps are referred to as “uncertainty”. 

Therefore, controller design methods dealing with uncertainties explicitly have been required, and robust control for 

uncertain dynamical systems has been extensively studied. One can see that robust control can be classified into “robust 

stability analysis” and “robust stabilization”, and lots of existing results for robust control strategies have been presented [3-6] 

and quadratic stabilizing controllers and  control are well known robust control strategies[7,8]. Note that the conventional 

robust controller consists of fixed gains which are derived by considering the worst-case variations for uncertainties. In 

contrast with the conventional robust control with fixed gains, some researchers have presented variable gain robust 

controllers for uncertain systems [9-11]. Such variable gain robust control strategies are more flexible and adaptive 

comparing with the conventional robust control with fixed gains. 

On the other hand, the practical systems in modern society have become large-scale and complex due to rapid 

development of technologies, and such systems are referred to as “large-scale interconnected systems”. Since it is difficult to 

apply centralized control strategies to such large-scale interconnected systems, design problems of decentralized control for 

                                                           
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: g1881842@tcu.ac.jp

 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

 

235 

large-scale interconnected systems have been well studied (see [12] and references therein). For instance, one can see that 

large interconnected power distribution systems which have strong interactions, transportation and traffic systems with lots 

of external signals, water systems which are widely distributed in the environment, energy systems, communication systems 

and so on are large-scale systems. Moreover, formation control has recently attracted much attention, and a multi-agent 

system, in general, can be described as a network of a few of coupled dynamic units that are called agents. The design 

problems of formation control for MASs are considered as one of  the decentralized control problems and it is well -known 

that MASs can achieve various task efficiently. For design problems of formation control for MASs, the consensus problem 

has received a lot of attention, because this problem has drawn substantial attention from various fields such as vehicle 

formations, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile robots, sensor networks, and so on. Moreover, a consensus which means the 

states of all agents are driven to a common state by implementing distributed protocols is well accepted as one of the most 

important and fundamental problem in formation control. Thus, a large number of existing results for consensus problem 

have been presented (e.g. [13-16]). In the work of Olfati-Saber et al. [13], the consensus problem for a network of first-order 

integrators with directed information flow and fixed/switching topology has been studied, and convergence analysis of a 

consensus protocol for a class of networks of dynamic agents with fixed topology have been shown [14]. Zhang and Tian 

have studied the mean-square consensus for MASs composed of second-order integrators [15], and the matrix inequality-

based stabilization condition and consensus algorithm for MASs have been presented [16]. Also, a number of the existing 

results for the leader-follower consensus for MASs  has been presented([17-19]). “Leader-follower” refers to defining a 

leader (whether real or virtual) and controlling another agent (follower) to follow the leader. In these results for consensu s 

problem for MASs, controllers have fixed gain parameters only, and relative distances between agents cannot be considered 

explicitly. There are few results of the consensus problem via adaptive gain-based controller considering  relative distances 

between agents for MASs. 

From the above, this paper deals with a consensus problem for MASs with leader-follower structures. In this paper, we 

present a design method of an adaptive gain controller giving  considering  relative distances between agents. The adaptive 

gain controller consists of fixed gains and variable ones tuned by time-varying adjustable parameters. In this paper. we show 

that enough conditions for the existence of the proposed adaptive gain controller can be reduced to linear matrix inequality 

(LMI). The proposed adaptive gain control strategy has advantages as follows; The proposed controller design approach can 

handle relative distances between agents explicitly. Furthermore, even if the information for relative distances between the 

other agents and the leader is unknown, but their upper bounds are known, the controller can achieve consensus. 

Furthermore, the proposed consensus control system can be designed by solving LMI. Finally, simple numerical examples 

are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed formation control systems. 

2. Preliminaries 

This chapter shows the mathematical notation used in this paper. m n represents an m-by-n real matrix, and nI  

represents an n-dimensional identity matrix. For matrix A ,
T

A and
1

A


 represent transpose and inverse. For a square matrix

A , 0( 0)A A   indicates that A  is positive definite (positive semidefinite) and 0( 0)A A   is negative definite (negative 

semidefinite). C is the norm of any matrix C . 1 2( , ,..., )ndiag A A A  gives a diagonal block matrix with matrices iA  (i = 1, 

2, ..., n) on the diagonal. Element * in the matrix represents a symmetric element. If A  is a m×n matrix and B is a p×q 

matrix, the Kronecker product A B  is defined as follows; 

11 1

1

n

mnm

mp nq

a B a B

A B

a B a B


 
 

 
 
 
   

(1) 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 236 

Moreover, in this paper, we express the information path between agents based on graph theory [20]. The graph is 

collection of vertices and edges, and the notation of a graph is ( , ) , where {1, 2,..., }N is the set of N vertices in 

the graph, and   is the set of edges connecting the vertices. Note that there are two types of graph, i.e. undirected graph and 

directed one. In this paper, we consider the directed graph. Furthermore, we introduce an adjacency matrix , a degree 

matrix and a graph Laplacian in order to express the graph algebraically. The adjacency matrix represents the 

adjacency relation of each vertex of the graph. In the graph ( , )  for a pair ( , )i j  that is, there is an edge from j 

to i  the vertex i is said to be adjacent to j . In this case, the adjacent set of vertices i  is  | ( , )i j i j   , and the 

elements ija  of ija   
is defined as 

1     if( , )  and 

0                      otherwise
ij

i j i j
a

 
 
  

(2) 

Additionally, in the directed graph ( , ) , the in-degree of a vertex represents the number of edges incoming to the 

vertex and it is denoted as 
in
id . Conversely, out-degree means the number of edges outgoing from a vertex. Then for the 

graph ( , )  , the degree matrix 
N N

 and the graph Laplacian  are defined as 

1 2( , ,..., )ndiag A A A  
(3) 

 

  (4) 

Furthermore, the following  useful lemma is used in this paper: 

Lemma 1 [21]: For arbitrary vectors  and  , matrices G and H with appropriate dimensions, the following inequality 

holds: 

2 2
T T

GH G H     (5) 

3. Problem Formulation 

 
Fig. 1 multi-agent system in this paper 

In Fig.1, the triangle “ i ” represents i -th agent(i=1,2,3). Moreover “ l ” means the leader and the others are followers, 

and arrows indicate communication paths. Then, the adjacency matrix , the degree matrix , and the graph Laplacian in 

Fig.1 can be obtained as 

0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0

1 0 1 , 0 2 0 , 1 2 1

1 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 2

     
     

    
     
             

(6) 

Now we assume that i -th agent ( , 2, 3i l ) can be described as the following state equation: 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

 

237 

( ) ( ) ( )    ( 1, 2,3)i i i
d

dt
x t Ax t Bu t i  

 
(7) 

where ( )
n

ix t  and ( )
m

iu t  are the vectors of the state and the control input, and the state ( )
n

ix t  is given by 

 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
T

i xi xi yi yix t x t v t x t v t
 

(8) 

i.e. the state ( )xix t  (resp. ( )yix t ) is the position in x-axis (resp. y-axis), and ( )xiv t  (resp. ( )yiv t ) is velocity in x-axis (resp. y-

axis) for the i -th agent. In (7),
l n

A


 and
l m

B


 are the system parameters which are defined as 

0 1 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1 0
,  

0 0 0 1 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 1

A B

   
   
    
   
   
     

(9) 

Here, in order to consider the relative positions between agents, we introduce the following vectors: 

 ˆ ˆ
T

i xi xi yi yid d v d v
 

(10) 

where xid (resp. yid ) is the desired relative position in x-axis (resp. y-axis) between the i -th agent and the leader agent. 

Similarly, ˆxiv and ˆyiv are the target velocity. Note that one can see that 0ld . Here, we consider the difference between the 

actual position of the agent ( ( ))ix t  and the desired relative position between the leader and the follower id  as a new state of 

the system. From (7), the state equation of each follower considering the relative positions from leader to follower is 

expressed as 

   ( ) ( ) ( )     ( 1, 2.3)i i i i i
d

x t d A x t d Bu t i
dt

    
 

(11) 

By introducing the additional state vector ( )ix t  described as 

 

( ) ( )

ˆ( ) ( )

( ) ( )

ˆ( ) ( )

( ) ( )

xi xi xi

xi xi xi

i i
yi yi yi

yi yi yi

i

x t d x t

v t v v t

x t d x t

v t v v t

x t x t d

   
   


   

  
   
   
   
   



 

(12) 

Then one can see from (11) and (12) that the following state equation can be obtained: 

( ) ( ) ( )i i i
d

dt
x t Ax t Bu t 

 
(13) 

Summarizing the state equations of all agents, we get the following total system: 

( ) ( ) ( )t t
d

dt
x t A x t B u t 

 
(14) 

where , , ( )t tA B x t and ( )u t are matrices and vectors given by 

   

3 3

2 3 2 3

0 0 0 0

0 0 ,      B 0 0

0 0 0 0

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ,     ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

t t

T T
T T T T T T
l l

A B

A I A A I B B

A B

x t x t x t x t u t u t u t u t

   
   

     
   
   
   

 
 

(15) 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 238 

Next, we consider the control input ( )u t . Note that consensus problem, “consensus” for agents means that the following 

relation for i  and j   holds: 

 lim ( ) ( ) 0i j
t

x t x t


 
 

(16) 

If 
2 4

F


  is the consensus gain, it is known that the consensus input for ( )ix t , ( )Fiu t is given by [22]. 

 ( ) ( ) ( )
i

Fi i j

j

u t F x t x t


 
 

(17) 

In the case of this paper, ( )Fiu t is calculated as follows: 

2 2 3

3 2 3

( ) 0

( ) ( ( ) 2 ( ) ( ))

( ) ( ( ) ( ) 2 ( ))

Fl

F l

F l

u t

u t F x t x t x t

u t F x t x t x t



   

   
 

(18) 

Namely,  2 3( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
T

T T T
F Fl F F

u t u t u t u t can be represented by the following matrix-vector form: 

2

3

0 0 0 ( )

( ) 2 ( ) ( ) ( )

2 ( )

l

F

x t

u t F F F x t F x t

F F F x t

  
  

    
  

       

(19) 

Additionally, let ( )Ku t  be the state feedback input for stabilization of the system. By using the feedback gain matrix 

2 4
( )Ku t


 , the state feedback input ( )Ku t  can be written as 

( ) ( ) ( )Ku t I K x t  
(20) 

Finally, we introduce a compensation input v(t) and consider the following control input: 

( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

0 0 0 0 0

2 ( ) 2 ( )

2 2

K F

t

u t u t u t v t

I K x t F x t v t

K

F K F F x t F F F d v t

F F K F F F F

 

    

   
   

       
   
            

(21) 

where  2 3( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
T

T T T
l

v t v t v t v t . Note that the design method for the compensation input v(t) and the gain matrices 

2 4
K


  and

2 4
F


  is discussed in the next section. From (14) and (21), we have 

2

3

0 0 0 0 0

2 2

2 2

0 0 0 0 ( ) 0 0 0

* 0 ( 2 ) ( ) 2

* * ( 2 ) ( )

( ) ( )( ) ( )

l

t tt

K
d

F K F F F F F
dt

F F K F F F F

A BK x t

A BF B K F BF x t BF BF

A BF BF B K F x t

B x t d v tx t A x t

    
    

           
            

     
     

            
              



2

3

2 2 2 3

3 3 2 3

0 0

* 0 ( )

2 * *

0 0 ( ) ( )

( ) ( ) (2 )

( ) ( ) ( 2 )

l

K l l

F

F

d B

BF d B v t

BF BF BF d B

A x t Bv t

BF A BF x t Bv t BF d d

BF BF A x t Bv t BF d d

    
    


    

         

    
    

     
    

              

(22) 

In (21), KA  and FA are the matrices described as KA A BK  , 2KA A BK BF   . 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

 

239 

From the above, the controller design objective in this study is to derive the consensus gain 
2 4

F


 , the feedback 

gain
2 4

K


  and compensation input
6

( )v t  so that the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system of (22) is 

guaranteed. 

4. Main Results 

In this section, the design method of the feedback gain
2 4

K


 , the consensus gains 
2 4

F


  and the compensation 

input 
2

( ) ( , 2, 3)iv t i l   is shown. 

We give the following theorem for determining these parameters of the overall system (22). 

Theorem 1. Consider the overall system of (14) and the control input of (21). If there exist solutions 0S  , KW  and 

FW of following LMI condition: 

11 12 13

22 23

33

11 12 13

22 33 23

* 0

* *

, 2

,     

2 2 ,     

K K

T T T T T
K K K

T T T T T T T
K K F F F F

A A BK A A BK BF

SA AS W B BW W B

SA AS W B BW BW W B W B BW

  

 



  

  

 
 


 
 
 

    

      

        
 

(23) 

then the compensation input ( )v t  is designed as follows, 

2

2 2 3 22

2
3

3

3 2 32

3

0

( )
( )

( ) ( ) 2 ( )

( )( )

( )
2 ( )

( )

T Tl
T

T

T T

T

T

v t
F B Px t

v t v t Fd dm B Px t

B Px tv t

F B Px t
Fd dm B Px t

B Px t

 
  
  

     
  

   
 
  
 
 
   

(24) 

where the matrix P is given by
1

P S


 and the feedback gain matrix K and the consensus one F are designed as 

1
KK W S


  

(25) 

 

1
FF W S




 
(26) 

Moreover, by applying the control input of (27) with the compensation input ( )v t of (24) the gain matrices K (25) and

F  (26) to the overall system of (14),  asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system of (22) is guaranteed. 

Proof: Using a positive definite symmetric matrix
4 4T

P P


  , we introduce the following quadratic function as a 

candidate for Lyapunov function: 

3( , ) ( ) ( ) ( )
T

V x t x t I P x t 
 

(27) 

The time derivative of the quadratic function along the trajectory of the closed-loop system of (22) satisfies 

 3 3( , ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
T Td d d

V x t x t I P x t x t I P x t
dt dt dt

   
 

(28) 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 240 

As is well known, the stability condition for the closed-loop system is 

( , ) 0
d

dt
V x t 

 
(29) 

and the time derivative of the quadratic function along the trajectory of the closed-loop system of (22) can be written as 

2 2 3 3

3 2 3

3 2 2 3

3

0 0 ( )

( , ) ( ) ( ) (2 ) ( ) ( )

( ) ( 2 )

0 0 ( )

     ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) (2 )

( )

T
K l

F

F

K l
T

F

F

A Bv t
d

V x t BF A BF x t Bv t BF d d I P x t
dt

BF BF A Bv t BF d d

A Bv t

x t I P BF A BF x t Bv t BF d d

BF BF A Bv t B

   
   

         
            

 
 

      
 
     2 3

2 2 3 2 2 3

3 2 3 3

( 2 )

( ) ( )

*

( ) ( )

     ( ) ( ) (2 ) ( ) (2 )

( ) ( 2 ) ( )

T T T T T
K K

T T T T
F F

T
F F

l l
T

t t t t

F d d

A P PA F B P F B P

x t PBF A P PA F B P PBF x t

PBF A P PA

v t v t

x t P B v t F d d P B v t F d d

v t F d d v t F

  
  
  
     

   
 
     
 
  
 

 
 

     
 
      2 3

( )

( 2 )

T

x t

d d

  
  
  
       

(30) 

where
12 12

tP


  is the following symmetric positive definite matrix: 

3

0 0

* 0

* *

t

P

P I P P

P

 
 

  
 
 
   

(31) 

Here, by introducing the matrix ( , , )P K F  and the scalar function ( , , ( ))P F v t  which are defined as 

    

  

2 2 3 2 2 3

3 2 3 3 2 3

2 2 3 2

3 2 3

( ) ( )

( , , ( )) ( ) ( ) (2 ) ( ) (2 ) ( )

( ) ( 2 ) ( ) ( 2 )

2 ( ) ( ) 2 ( ) 2 ( )

2 ( ) 2

T
l l

T
t t t t

TT
l l

v t v t

P F v t x t P B v t F d d P B v t F d d x t

v t F d d v t F d d

PB PBv t x t PB PB v t F d d x t

PB PB v t F d d



    
    

        
             

    
 

    3 ( )
T

x t
   

(32) 

 

( , , ) *

* *

T T T T T
K K

T T T
F F

T
F F

A P PA F B P F B P

P K F A P PA F B P PBF

A P PA

   
 
    
 
 
   

(33) 

one can see that the stability condition for the closed-loop system of (22) is reduced to 

( , ) ( ) ( , , ) ( , , ( )) 0
Td

V x t x t P K F P F v t
dt

   
 

(34) 

Namely, if the matrix ( , , )P K F  is negative definite and ( , , ( ))P F v t < 0 are satisfied, then the quadratic function ( , )V x t  

becomes a Lyapunov function. For leader agent, there is no need the compensation input, i.e. ( ) 0lv t  then we have 

 

  

2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 2

3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3

( ) ( ) 0

( ) ( ) (2 ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 ( ) ( )

( ) ( ) 2 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 ( )

l l

T T T T T T T

T T T T T T T

t PBv t

t PB v t F d d x t v t B Px t d F B Px t d F B Px t

t PB v t F d d x t v t B Px t d F B Px t d F B Px t







 

       

       
   

(35) 

where ( )i t ( , 2,3)i l is the i -th term in the right-hand side of (32). Since ( ) 0lv t  , we consider the design problem of  

2 ( )v t  and 3 ( )v t . Let 3 ( )t  be an auxiliary input for reducing the effect of 3d . In this paper, 3d means the relative position 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

 

241 

between the leader and the follower 3, and it is unknown to the follower 2. The follower 2 can obtain the information for the 

upper bound
3dm  for the relative position, i.e. 3dm  satisfies 3 3d dm . Therefore, we consider 

2 2 3( ) 2 ( )v t Fd t    (36) 

and one can see that for the third term in the right-hand side of 
2 ( )t  in (35) the following inequality holds: 

3 2 3 2

3 2

( ) ( )

( )

T T T T

T T

d F B Px t d F B Px t

dm F B Px t

  


 

(37) 

Thus, by selecting 
3 ( )t defined as 

2

3 3 22

2

( )
( ) ( )

( )

T T

T

T

F B Px t
t dm B Px t

B Px t

  

 

(38) 

we can obtain 

2

2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 22

2

( )
( ) 2 ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 ( ) ( )

( )

0

T T

T T T T T T T

T

F B Px t
t d F B Px t dm x t PB B Px t d F B Px t dm F B Px t

B Px t



 
 

      
 
 

  

(39) 

Similarly, we consider the following compensation input for follower 3: 

3 3 2( ) 2 ( )v t Fd t    
(40) 

For the third term in the right-hand side of 3
( )t

in (35), we find that the inequality 

2 3 2 3

2 3

( ) ( )

( )

T T T T

T T

d F B Px t d F B Px t

dm F B Px t

  


 

(41) 

is satisfied, and thus 
2 ( )t is designed as  

3

2 2 32

3

( )
( ) ( )

( )

T T

T

T

F B Px t
t dm B Px t

B Px t

  

 

(42) 

Then we can obtain the following inequality: 

3 ( ) 0t   (43) 

Consequently, if ( )v t is designed as 

2

2 2 3 22

2
3

3

3 2 32

3

0

( )
( )

( ) ( ) 2 ( )

( )( )

( )
2 ( )

( )

T Tl
T

T

T T

T

T

v t
F B Px t

v t v t Fd dm B Px t

B Px tv t

F B Px t
Fd dm B Px t

B Px t

 
  
  

     
  

   
 
  
 
 
   

(44) 

then we have 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 242 

 2 3( , , ( )) 2 ( ) ( ) 0P F v t t t      (45) 

Once again considering the asymptotic stability condition of (34), the quadratic form term of ( )x t should satisfy 

( ) ( , , ) ( ) 0
T

x t P K F x t 
 

(46) 

The inequality of (46) is equivalent to the following condition;  

( , , ) 0P K F 
 

(47) 

In order to design the consensus gain F , and the feedback gain K , we introduce the symmetric positive definite matrix 

S satisfying
1

S P


 and change of variables 
2 4

KW KS


  and
2 4

FW FS


  . Moreover, pre- and post-multiplying 

(47) by 3( )I S , we get. 

11 12 13

22 23

33

11

3 3

0 0 0 0

* 0 * * 0

* * * ** *

* 0

* *

( , 2 )

,     

( ) ( , , )( )

T T T T T
K K

T T T
F F

T
F F

K K

T T T
K K

A P PA F B P F B PS S

S A P PA F B P PBF S

S SA P PA

A A BK A A BK BF

SA AS W B BW

I S P K F I S

  

 





       
       
       

    
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

    

   

  

12 13

22 33 232 2 ,     

T T
K

T T T T T T T
K K F F F F

W B

SA AS W B BW BW W B W B BW

 

  

  

        
 

(48) 

This inequality of (48) is linear matrix inequality (LMI) for S , KW  and FW . If the solution of the LMI of (48) exists, 

the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system of (22) is guaranteed, and the feedback gain K and the consensus gain F 

can be obtained as 

1 1
,   K FK W S F W S

 
   (49) 

From the above discussion, the proof of Theorem1 is accomplished. 

Remark 1: In this paper, we approached the case of network topology such as fig.1 as an example, but the other 

topological structures can be handled if similar theoretical development is applied. However, it is inevitable that LMI will 

increase in size and complexity by the number of agents and the topology becomes complicated. 

Remark 2: When the relative position between the leader and the follower is considered explicitly, it is often uncertain 

or unknown about the relative position between the leader and the other followers. Thus, construction of the state equation is 

generally not easy. As a result, there are not much exiting results which have explicitly dealt with the relative position in the 

dynamics as far as we know. On the other hand, in this study, it is possible to discuss LMI-based control system design that 

clearly indicates relative positional relationship by adding an input using the maximum value of relative distance that is 

known when performing the desired formation. 

5. Numerical Simulation 

Firstly, by solving LMI (48), we have symmetric positive definite matrices 4 4S  , 
4 4

P


  and matrices 2 4
KW


  

and 2 4
FW


  which are given by 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

 

243 

1 3 3

1 3 3

3 3 1

3 3 1

1.1574 4.2577 10 2.0326 10 3.4553 10

4.2577 10 1.1574 3.4553 10 2.0326 10

2.0326 10 3.4553 10 1.1574 4.2577 10

3.4553 10 2.0326 10 4.2577 10 1.1574

S

  

  

  

  

     
 
     
     
        

(50) 

 

1 1 4 3

1 1 3 4

4 3 1 1

3 4 1 1

9.9925 10 3.6760 10 2.3596 10 2.4249 10

3.6760 10 9.9925 10 2.4249 10 2.3462 10

2.3596 10 2.4249 10 9.9925 10 3.6760 10

2.4249 10 2.3462 10 3.6760 10 9.9925 10

P

   

   

   

   

    
 

    
    
       

(51) 

 

3 18

3
1.1651 1.9053 9.7081 10 1.6958 10

9.7077 10 2.1926 1.1651 1.9053K
W

 


              

(52) 

 

6 1 6 1

6 1 6 1
6.9246 10 7.9258 10 6.9246 10 5.6843 10

6.9246 10 5.6843 10 6.9246 10 7.9258 10
FW

   

   

    
  

      

(53) 

Then the feedback gain 
2 4

K


  and the consensus gain 
2 4

F


  can be calculated as 

2 3

1
1.8646 2.3321 1.4595 10 6.8409 10

8.2057 10 2.1978 1.8699 2.3327
K

 


              

(54) 

 

1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1
2.9273 10 7.9213 10 2.1088 10 5.6819 10

2.1088 10 5.6819 10 2.9274 10 7.9213 10
F

   

   

    
  

      

(55) 

In this example, initial values for the closed-loop system of (22) are selected as follows; 

2 3

5 6 1
2 4 2

(0) ,            (0) ,             (0)
3 0 2
2 3 4

lx x x

     
     

  
     
            

(56) 

Furthermore, let ( )r t be the leader’s reference input and  ( )lx t  be ( ) ( ) ( )l lx t x t r t  .   In this example, ( )r t gives the 

leader to go around a circle of radius 3 with 20[s]. Also, give 2d  and 3d  are so that the followers 2 and 3 leaves the leader 

by (2, 2) and (-2, 2). 

 
 

 
 

2 3

3cos 0.1 2 2
0.3sin 0.1 0 0

( ) ,            ,             
2 23sin 0.1

0 00.3cos 0.1

t

t
r t d d

t

t







     
     

        
             

(57) 

Additionally, 
2dm and 3dm are selected as 2 3 6dm dm  . 

The simulation result of this numerical example is shown in Figs. 2 - 7. In Figs.2 - 5, show the state trajectory of each 

agent and the shape of the formation every 5[s]. Figs.6 and 7 show the time histories of each agent in the x and y-axes, 

respectively. From Figs.2-5, we can see that the leader follows the given trajectory, and the followers 2 and 3 follow the 

desired relative position. Also, from fig.6 and fig.7, looking at the transition of the position coordinates of each agent, it can 

be seen that the follower moves away from the leader's movement locus by the desired position as time passes. Namely, it 

can be said that the proposed formation control system has been designed, and thus we have shown the effectiveness of the 

proposed formation control systems. 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 244 

  

Fig. 2 Movement of each agent in 0[s]   Fig. 3 Movement of each agent in 10[s] 

 

  

Fig. 4 Movement of each agent in 20[s]  Fig. 5 Movement of each agent in 40[s] 

 

  

Fig.6 Time histories of xix (t)   Fig.7 Time histories of yix (t)  

6. Conclusions 

In this paper, we present a design method of an adaptive gain controller  considering  relative distances between agents 

for MASs with leader-follower structure. The proposed adaptive gain controller consists of the state feedback laws with 

fixed gains and compensation input with adaptive gains which are adjusted by updating rules. We have shown that the 

sufficient conditions for the existence of the proposed adaptive gain controller are reduced to the solvability of LMI, i.e. the 

proposed controller can be designed by using software such as MATLAB’s LMI Control Toolbox, Scilab’s LMITOOL and 

so on. In the proposed control strategy, there is no need the information on the target value of the other followers and the 

information about the upper bound on relative positions is only required. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed 

formation control system has been shown through a simple numerical example. 



Advances Technology Innovation, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, pp. 234-246 

 

245 

The future research subjects are an extension of the proposed design to such a broad class of systems as discrete-time 

systems and output feedback systems. Moreover, for the proposed adaptive gain controller, improvement of transient 

performance and guaranteeing disturbance attenuation level are our important future research subjects. Additionally, we will 

study the conservativeness of the proposed controller design and extend the proposed controller synthesis to such a broad 

class of control systems as a formation for MASs consisting of more general agent’s dynamics with uncertainties and 

consensus via output feedback controllers. 

Conflicts of Interest 

The authors declare no conflict of interest. 

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