We discuss an old distributed algorithm for reaching consensus that has received a fair amount of recent attention. In this algorithm, a number of agents exchange their values asynchronously and form weighted averages with (possibly outdated) values possessed by their neighbors. We overview existing convergence results, and establish some new ones, for the case of unbounded intercommunication intervals.

We coordinate in discrete time the interaction of two heterogeneous groups of mobile agents: a group of ground vehicles (ugvs) and a group of aerial vehicles (uavs). The ground agents interact with each other through time-invariant, nearestneighbor rules. They synchronize their velocities through a specific communication protocol, and maintain cohesion and separation behavior by means of inter-agent potential forces. Ground vehicles estimate their formation’s centroid using only locally available delayed information. That same information is transmitted to the aerial group, which orbits above the ground formation’s centroid, while avoiding midair collisions. Stability of the ground group motion is established in a Lyapunov framework. A Lyapunov analysis is also used to ensure that uavs track the ground group’s centroid.

Abstract. We introduce the total s-energy of a multiagent system with time-dependent links. This provides a new analytical perspective on bidirectional agreement dynamics, which we use to bound the convergence rates of dynamical systems for synchronization, flocking, opinion dynamics, and social epistemology.