Distributed Estimation and Motion Control in Multi-Agent Systems Under Multiple Attacks

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of distributed estimation and motion control (DEMC) in multi-agent systems (MASs) with both linear and Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics. Unlike conventional DEMC methods designed for MASs under ideal conditions, this work investigates scenarios where all agents are vulnerable to various forms of attacks. The considered attacks comprise false-data injection (FDI) attacks and denial of service (DoS) attacks that affect the communication channels among agents to destabilize the MAS. Also, the unbounded actuator attacks which exist in practical environments to intentionally degrade the MAS performance is considered. To cope with these kinds of attacks, two novel resilient approaches are established aimed at estimating and following a mobile target under attacks. The proposed distributed attack-resilient control strategies are designed based on a dual-layer structure, guaranteeing effective DEMC with an ultimately bounded error. The results from two simulation examples are provided to validate the presented algorithms. Note to Practitioners—The motivation of this work is to deal with the DEMC problem for MASs under multiple attacks. In most of the existing DEMC schemes for MASs, having a healthy network and dynamics is a requirement. However, in practical environments, MASs as an important subclass of cyber-physical systems are subject to different types of attacks that affect the network and dynamics of MASs and may seriously jeopardize the performance of the DEMC algorithm, or even worse, lead to instability. Therefore, a resilient hierarchical DEMC algorithm is proposed for MASs which allows agents to estimate and follow a mobile target under multiple attacks. The proposed scheme is resilient to most existing cyber-attacks and is designed for MASs with both linear and nonlinear dynamics. It can be applied to various practical engineering systems such as autonomous vehicles, mobile robots, and intelligent transportation systems. The stability and convergence of the proposed algorithms are analyzed mathematically, and it is shown that the agents not only track the estimated target but also can cope with multiple attacks through simulation experiments.