Control of misbehaving multiagent networks using driver and observer nodes

Abstract

While applying control signals to every node is typically considered in multiagent networks to mitigate the adverse effects of misbehaving nodes, this control strategy may not always be possible due to physical constraints and/or economical limitations. Motivated by this standpoint, we have recently focused on how to control misbehaving multiagent networks through sending control signals to a subset of nodes (i.e. driver nodes) for suppressing the adverse effects of misbehaving nodes in the overall multiagent network, where the driver nodes only use their own state information to generate their control signals. To address the open problem where the driver nodes cannot obtain their own state information, the main contribution of this paper is that we now take into account that these nodes need to generate their control signals using the state information received from other subset of nodes (i.e. observer nodes). We characterise which nodes in the network behave as desired based on the selection of driver nodes and observer nodes in control of misbehaving multiagent networks. In addition, we provide numerical examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach as well as the importance of the selection of driver and observer nodes for maximising the number of nodes that exhibit the desired responses.