Distributed Safe Consensus Under Asymmetric Input and Time-Varying Output Constraints

2026-06-14

AI Summary

This study addresses the distributed safety-critical consensus problem for single-integrator multi-agent systems subject to asymmetric actuator constraints and time-varying output safety constraints. The authors propose a unified control framework based on a barrier coordinate transformation, which effectively handles time-varying safety intervals. A distributed synchronization law is designed by integrating graph-theoretic coordination mechanisms with an actuator dynamics tracking layer, ensuring that control inputs strictly respect asymmetric bounds while outputs remain within prescribed safety sets at all times. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that the closed-loop system admits complete solutions, all signals remain bounded, and synchronization errors converge exponentially to zero. Numerical simulations corroborate the efficacy of the proposed approach. Notably, this work is the first to jointly accommodate asymmetric input constraints and time-varying output safety constraints within a single coherent framework.

Abstract

This paper studies safe distributed consensus for single-integrator multi-agent systems over connected undirected graphs under simultaneous asymmetric actuator constraints and output safety constraints. Each agent is equipped with a continuously differentiable asymmetric actuator dynamics that maps a commanded control signal to the realized plant input while keeping the latter strictly inside a prescribed admissible interval. To address output safety, a barrier-coordinate transformation is introduced over a common time-varying safe interval, and a distributed synchronization law is designed in the transformed coordinates. The resulting controller integrates a graph-based coordination layer with an actuator-side tracking layer, thereby enabling simultaneous enforcement of input admissibility, forward invariance of the safe output set, and asymptotic synchronization. For compact admissible sets of initial conditions, it is shown that the closed-loop solution is complete, all signals remain bounded, the actuator inputs remain strictly within their asymmetric bounds, and the agent outputs remain inside the prescribed safe interval for all time. Moreover, the transformed synchronization errors converge exponentially to zero, and the original agent outputs asymptotically synchronize to a designer-selected admissible trajectory embedded in the common safe interval. Numerical simulations validate the proposed framework and demonstrate safe consensus under both asymmetric actuation bounds and time-varying output constraints.

Problem

• distributed consensus
• asymmetric input constraints
• time-varying output constraints
• multi-agent systems
• safety

Innovation

• distributed consensus
• asymmetric input constraints
• time-varying output constraints
• barrier-coordinate transformation
• multi-agent systems