Dear Editor,This letter investigates predefined-time optimization problems(OPs) of multi-agent systems(MASs), where the agent of MASs is subject to inequality constraints, and the team objective function accounts for ...Dear Editor,This letter investigates predefined-time optimization problems(OPs) of multi-agent systems(MASs), where the agent of MASs is subject to inequality constraints, and the team objective function accounts for impulse effects. Firstly, to address the inequality constraints,the penalty method is introduced. Then, a novel optimization strategy is developed, which only requires that the team objective function be strongly convex.展开更多
Dear Editor,This letter is concerned with the problem of time-varying formation tracking for heterogeneous multi-agent systems(MASs) under directed switching networks. For this purpose, our first step is to present so...Dear Editor,This letter is concerned with the problem of time-varying formation tracking for heterogeneous multi-agent systems(MASs) under directed switching networks. For this purpose, our first step is to present some sufficient conditions for the exponential stability of a particular category of switched systems.展开更多
Dear Editor,This letter studies a real-world issue in leader-follower multi-agent systems(MASs)named open topology,which permits the variations of agent set and network connections.Specially,a novel transition process...Dear Editor,This letter studies a real-world issue in leader-follower multi-agent systems(MASs)named open topology,which permits the variations of agent set and network connections.Specially,a novel transition process is developed to explain how the involved variation of network scale affects the dynamic behavior of the MASs.From a resource limited perspective,the distributed saturated impulsive control is then designed,under which some sufficient criteria are integrated into local quasi-consensus performance.We also provide a combined optimization algorithm for all agents to make the estimated domain of initial errors closer to the real one,thereby resulting in less conservativeness.Finally,a numerical example validates our results.展开更多
With the widespread deployment of large language models(LLMs)in complex and multimodal scenarios,there is a growing demand for secure and standardized integration of external tools and data sources.The Model Context P...With the widespread deployment of large language models(LLMs)in complex and multimodal scenarios,there is a growing demand for secure and standardized integration of external tools and data sources.The Model Context Protocol(MCP),proposed by Anthropic in late 2024,has emerged as a promising framework.Designed to standardize the interaction between LLMs and their external environments,it serves as a“USB-C interface for AI”.While MCP has been rapidly adopted in the industry,systematic academic studies on its security implications remain scarce.This paper presents a comprehensive review of MCP from a security perspective.We begin by analyzing the architecture and workflow of MCP and identify potential security vulnerabilities across key stages including input processing,decision-making,client invocation,server response,and response generation.We then categorize and assess existing defense mechanisms.In addition,we design a real-world attack experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of tool description injection within an actual MCP environment.Based on the experimental results,we further highlight underexplored threat surfaces and propose future directions for securing AI agent systems powered by MCP.This paper aims to provide a structured reference framework for researchers and developers seeking to balance functionality and security in MCP-based systems.展开更多
Dear Editor,This letter studies the bipartite consensus tracking problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems with actuator faults and a leader's unknown time-varying control input. To handle such a problem, the ...Dear Editor,This letter studies the bipartite consensus tracking problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems with actuator faults and a leader's unknown time-varying control input. To handle such a problem, the continuous fault-tolerant control protocol via observer design is developed. In addition, it is strictly proved that the multi-agent system driven by the designed controllers can still achieve bipartite consensus tracking after faults occur.展开更多
Consensus of multi-agent systems is an interesting research topic and has wide applications in science and engineering. The agents considered in most existing studies on consensus problem are time-invariant. However, ...Consensus of multi-agent systems is an interesting research topic and has wide applications in science and engineering. The agents considered in most existing studies on consensus problem are time-invariant. However, in many cases, agent dynamics often show the characteristic of switching during the process of consensus. This paper considers consensus problem of general linear multi-agent system under both switching agent dynamics and jumping network topologies. Within the proposed multi-agent system, the agent dynamic switching is assumed to be deterministic, while the network topology jumping is considered respectively for two cases： deterministic jumping （Case 1） and Markov jumping （Case 2）. By applying the dwell time and the average dwell time techniques, a sufficient consensus and an almost sure consensus conditions are provided for these two cases, respectively. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the theoretical results.展开更多
In recent years, the increasingly complexity of the logistic and technical aspects of the novel manufacturing environments, as well as the need to increase the performance and safety characteristics of the related coo...In recent years, the increasingly complexity of the logistic and technical aspects of the novel manufacturing environments, as well as the need to increase the performance and safety characteristics of the related cooperation, coordi-nation and control mechanisms is encouraging the development of new information management strategies to direct and man- age the automated systems involved in the manufacturing processes. The Computational Intelligent (CI) approaches seem to provide an effective support to the challenges posed by the next generation industrial systems. In particular, the Intelligent Agents (IAs) and the Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) paradigms seem to provide the best suitable solutions. Autonomy, flexibility and adaptability of the agent-based technology are the key points to manage both automated and information processes of any industrial system. The paper describes the main features of the IAs and MASs and how their technology can be adapted to support the current and next generation advanced industrial systems. Moreover, a study of how a MAS is utilized within a productive process is depicted.展开更多
It is impossible to plan in advance unpredictable phenomena at monitoring, diagnosis and control of industrial batch and continuous equipment and processes such as chemical composition of the raw materials, the proces...It is impossible to plan in advance unpredictable phenomena at monitoring, diagnosis and control of industrial batch and continuous equipment and processes such as chemical composition of the raw materials, the process leads to unexpected reactions and changes its parameters, etc. The agent is active, a program entity, has its own ideas how to perform the tasks of the own agenda. Agents perceive, behave ＂reasonably＂, communicate with other agents. Agents can represent equipment and operations in batch processes as recommended by the ISA $88. Jadex system is based on Java language and on FIPA org. recommendations. The description of ripening tank T406 and recipe for yogurt production in the holding of MADETA Corp. in the Czech Rep. It is described modeling and displaying of＂normal＂ and error, fault unit state of the ripening tank. Agents are within the Jadex system and describing the behavior of ripening tank T406 with state diagrams-automata and assist in diagnosing of fault states. States are described in XML language-SCXML （State Charts XML）. Jadex Control Center-JCC represents a major access point to use for operating in real time.展开更多
We consider an anisotropic swarm model with an attraction/repulsion function and study its aggregation properties. It is shown that the swarm members will aggregate and eventually form a cohesive cluster of finite siz...We consider an anisotropic swarm model with an attraction/repulsion function and study its aggregation properties. It is shown that the swarm members will aggregate and eventually form a cohesive cluster of finite size around the swarm center in a finite time. Moreover, we extend our results to more general attraction/repulsion functions. Numerical simulations demonstrate that all agents will eventually enter into and remain in a bounded region around the swarm center which may exhibit complex spiral motion due to asymmetry of the coupling structure. The model in this paper is more general than isotropic swarms and our results provide further insight into the effect of the interaction pattern on individual motion in a swarm system.展开更多
In this paper, we consider a consensus tracking problem of a class of networked multi-agent systems(MASs)in non-affine pure-feedback form under a directed topology. A distributed adaptive tracking consensus control sc...In this paper, we consider a consensus tracking problem of a class of networked multi-agent systems(MASs)in non-affine pure-feedback form under a directed topology. A distributed adaptive tracking consensus control scheme is constructed recursively by the backstepping method, graph theory,neural networks(NNs) and the dynamic surface control(DSC)approach. The key advantage of the proposed control strategy is that, by the DSC technique, it avoids "explosion of complexity"problem along with the increase of the degree of individual agents and thus the computational burden of the scheme can be drastically reduced. Moreover, there is no requirement for prior knowledge about system parameters of individual agents and uncertain dynamics by employing NNs approximation technology.We then further show that, in theory, the designed control policy guarantees the consensus errors to be cooperatively semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded(CSUUB). Finally, two examples are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.展开更多
This paper examines a consensus problem in multiagent discrete-time systems, where each agent can exchange information only from its neighbor agents. A decentralized protocol is designed for each agent to steer all ag...This paper examines a consensus problem in multiagent discrete-time systems, where each agent can exchange information only from its neighbor agents. A decentralized protocol is designed for each agent to steer all agents to the same vector. The design condition is expressed in the form of a linear matrix inequality. Finally, a simulation example is presented and a comparison is made to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed methodology.展开更多
This paper studies the leader-following consensus problem for a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems subject to linearly parameterized uncertainty and disturbance. The problem is solved by integrating t...This paper studies the leader-following consensus problem for a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems subject to linearly parameterized uncertainty and disturbance. The problem is solved by integrating the adaptive control technique and the adaptive distributed observer method. The design procedure is illustrated by an example with a group of Van der Pol oscillators as the followers and a harmonic system as the leader.展开更多
In this paper, the leader-following tracking problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems is addressed. The dynamics of each agent may be heterogeneous and has unknown nonlinearities. By assumptions that the intera...In this paper, the leader-following tracking problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems is addressed. The dynamics of each agent may be heterogeneous and has unknown nonlinearities. By assumptions that the interaction topology is undirected and connected and the unknown nonlinear uncertain dynamics can be parameterized by a neural network, an adaptive learning law is proposed to deal with unknown nonlinear dynamics, based on which a kind of cooperative tracking protocols are constructed. The feedback gain matrix is obtained to solve an algebraic Riccati equation. To construct the fully distributed cooperative tracking protocols, the adaptive law is also adopted to adjust the coupling weight. With the developed control laws,we can prove that all signals in the closed-loop systems are guaranteed to be uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, a simple simulation example is provided to illustrate the established result.展开更多
Finite-time consensus problem of the leader-following multi-agent system under switching network topologies is studied in this paper. Based on the graph theory, matrix theory, homogeneity with dilation, and LaSalle＇s...Finite-time consensus problem of the leader-following multi-agent system under switching network topologies is studied in this paper. Based on the graph theory, matrix theory, homogeneity with dilation, and LaSalle＇s invariance principle, the control protocol of each agent using local information is designed, and the detailed analysis of the leader- following finite-time consensus is provided. Some examples and simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.展开更多
In this paper, we focus on circle formation control of multi-agent systems （MAS） with a leader. The circle formation is achieved based on the lead-following and the artificial potential field method. A distributed c...In this paper, we focus on circle formation control of multi-agent systems （MAS） with a leader. The circle formation is achieved based on the lead-following and the artificial potential field method. A distributed control law is given to make a group of agents form a circle and consequently achieve an expected angle. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed circle formation strategies are effective.展开更多
Consensus problem is investigated for heterogeneous multi-agent systems composed of first-order agents and second-order agents in this paper. Leader-following consensus protocol is adopted to solve consensus problem o...Consensus problem is investigated for heterogeneous multi-agent systems composed of first-order agents and second-order agents in this paper. Leader-following consensus protocol is adopted to solve consensus problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with time-varying communication and input delays. By constructing Lyapunov-Krasovkii functional, sufficient consensus conditions in linear matrix inequality(LMI) form are obtained for the system under fixed interconnection topology. Moreover, consensus conditions are also obtained for the heterogeneous systems under switching topologies with time delays. Simulation examples are given to illustrate effectiveness of the results.展开更多
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62276119)the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK20241764)the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province(KYCX22_2860)
文摘Dear Editor,This letter investigates predefined-time optimization problems(OPs) of multi-agent systems(MASs), where the agent of MASs is subject to inequality constraints, and the team objective function accounts for impulse effects. Firstly, to address the inequality constraints,the penalty method is introduced. Then, a novel optimization strategy is developed, which only requires that the team objective function be strongly convex.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62273255,62350003,62088101)the Shanghai Science and Technology Cooperation Project(22510712000,21550760900)+1 种基金the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project(2021SHZDZX0100)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
文摘Dear Editor,This letter is concerned with the problem of time-varying formation tracking for heterogeneous multi-agent systems(MASs) under directed switching networks. For this purpose, our first step is to present some sufficient conditions for the exponential stability of a particular category of switched systems.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK20240009)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62373105,62373262)Jiangsu Provincial Scientific Research Center of Applied Mathematics(BK20233002).
文摘Dear Editor,This letter studies a real-world issue in leader-follower multi-agent systems(MASs)named open topology,which permits the variations of agent set and network connections.Specially,a novel transition process is developed to explain how the involved variation of network scale affects the dynamic behavior of the MASs.From a resource limited perspective,the distributed saturated impulsive control is then designed,under which some sufficient criteria are integrated into local quasi-consensus performance.We also provide a combined optimization algorithm for all agents to make the estimated domain of initial errors closer to the real one,thereby resulting in less conservativeness.Finally,a numerical example validates our results.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.62325207.
文摘With the widespread deployment of large language models(LLMs)in complex and multimodal scenarios,there is a growing demand for secure and standardized integration of external tools and data sources.The Model Context Protocol(MCP),proposed by Anthropic in late 2024,has emerged as a promising framework.Designed to standardize the interaction between LLMs and their external environments,it serves as a“USB-C interface for AI”.While MCP has been rapidly adopted in the industry,systematic academic studies on its security implications remain scarce.This paper presents a comprehensive review of MCP from a security perspective.We begin by analyzing the architecture and workflow of MCP and identify potential security vulnerabilities across key stages including input processing,decision-making,client invocation,server response,and response generation.We then categorize and assess existing defense mechanisms.In addition,we design a real-world attack experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of tool description injection within an actual MCP environment.Based on the experimental results,we further highlight underexplored threat surfaces and propose future directions for securing AI agent systems powered by MCP.This paper aims to provide a structured reference framework for researchers and developers seeking to balance functionality and security in MCP-based systems.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62325304,U22B2046,62073079,62376029)the Jiangsu Provincial Scientific Research Center of Applied Mathematics(BK20233002)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2023M730255,2024T171123)
文摘Dear Editor,This letter studies the bipartite consensus tracking problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems with actuator faults and a leader's unknown time-varying control input. To handle such a problem, the continuous fault-tolerant control protocol via observer design is developed. In addition, it is strictly proved that the multi-agent system driven by the designed controllers can still achieve bipartite consensus tracking after faults occur.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61573237)Shanghai Natural Science Fund(No.13ZR1416300)
文摘Consensus of multi-agent systems is an interesting research topic and has wide applications in science and engineering. The agents considered in most existing studies on consensus problem are time-invariant. However, in many cases, agent dynamics often show the characteristic of switching during the process of consensus. This paper considers consensus problem of general linear multi-agent system under both switching agent dynamics and jumping network topologies. Within the proposed multi-agent system, the agent dynamic switching is assumed to be deterministic, while the network topology jumping is considered respectively for two cases： deterministic jumping （Case 1） and Markov jumping （Case 2）. By applying the dwell time and the average dwell time techniques, a sufficient consensus and an almost sure consensus conditions are provided for these two cases, respectively. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the theoretical results.
文摘In recent years, the increasingly complexity of the logistic and technical aspects of the novel manufacturing environments, as well as the need to increase the performance and safety characteristics of the related cooperation, coordi-nation and control mechanisms is encouraging the development of new information management strategies to direct and man- age the automated systems involved in the manufacturing processes. The Computational Intelligent (CI) approaches seem to provide an effective support to the challenges posed by the next generation industrial systems. In particular, the Intelligent Agents (IAs) and the Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) paradigms seem to provide the best suitable solutions. Autonomy, flexibility and adaptability of the agent-based technology are the key points to manage both automated and information processes of any industrial system. The paper describes the main features of the IAs and MASs and how their technology can be adapted to support the current and next generation advanced industrial systems. Moreover, a study of how a MAS is utilized within a productive process is depicted.
文摘It is impossible to plan in advance unpredictable phenomena at monitoring, diagnosis and control of industrial batch and continuous equipment and processes such as chemical composition of the raw materials, the process leads to unexpected reactions and changes its parameters, etc. The agent is active, a program entity, has its own ideas how to perform the tasks of the own agenda. Agents perceive, behave ＂reasonably＂, communicate with other agents. Agents can represent equipment and operations in batch processes as recommended by the ISA $88. Jadex system is based on Java language and on FIPA org. recommendations. The description of ripening tank T406 and recipe for yogurt production in the holding of MADETA Corp. in the Czech Rep. It is described modeling and displaying of＂normal＂ and error, fault unit state of the ripening tank. Agents are within the Jadex system and describing the behavior of ripening tank T406 with state diagrams-automata and assist in diagnosing of fault states. States are described in XML language-SCXML （State Charts XML）. Jadex Control Center-JCC represents a major access point to use for operating in real time.
基金Supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China （61074068, 60774009, 61034007）, and the Research Fund for the Doc- toral Program of Chinese Higher Education （200804220028）
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10372002,60274001) and the National Key Basic Research and Develop-ment Program (No.2002CB312200).
文摘We consider an anisotropic swarm model with an attraction/repulsion function and study its aggregation properties. It is shown that the swarm members will aggregate and eventually form a cohesive cluster of finite size around the swarm center in a finite time. Moreover, we extend our results to more general attraction/repulsion functions. Numerical simulations demonstrate that all agents will eventually enter into and remain in a bounded region around the swarm center which may exhibit complex spiral motion due to asymmetry of the coupling structure. The model in this paper is more general than isotropic swarms and our results provide further insight into the effect of the interaction pattern on individual motion in a swarm system.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of Chin(61503194,61533010,61374055)the Ph.D.Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China(20110142110036)+6 种基金the Natural Science Foundation o Jiangsu Province(BK20131381,BK20140877)China Postdoctoral Scienc Foundation(2015M571788)Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Re search Funds(1402066B)the Foundation of the Key Laboratory of Marin Dynamic Simulation and Control for the Ministry of Transport(DMU)(DMU MSCKLT2016005)Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studie(2017-037)the Key University Natural Science Research Project of Jiangsu Province(17KJA120003)the Scientific Foundation of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications(NUPTSF)(NY214076)
文摘In this paper, we consider a consensus tracking problem of a class of networked multi-agent systems(MASs)in non-affine pure-feedback form under a directed topology. A distributed adaptive tracking consensus control scheme is constructed recursively by the backstepping method, graph theory,neural networks(NNs) and the dynamic surface control(DSC)approach. The key advantage of the proposed control strategy is that, by the DSC technique, it avoids "explosion of complexity"problem along with the increase of the degree of individual agents and thus the computational burden of the scheme can be drastically reduced. Moreover, there is no requirement for prior knowledge about system parameters of individual agents and uncertain dynamics by employing NNs approximation technology.We then further show that, in theory, the designed control policy guarantees the consensus errors to be cooperatively semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded(CSUUB). Finally, two examples are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
基金supported by Deanship of Scientific research(CDSR)at KFUPM(RG-1316-1)
文摘This paper examines a consensus problem in multiagent discrete-time systems, where each agent can exchange information only from its neighbor agents. A decentralized protocol is designed for each agent to steer all agents to the same vector. The design condition is expressed in the form of a linear matrix inequality. Finally, a simulation example is presented and a comparison is made to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed methodology.
基金Supported by National Basic Research Program of China （973 Program） （2010CB731800）, Key Project of Natural Science Fouudation of China （60934003）, National Natural Science Foundation of China （61074065, 60974018）, Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province（F2012203119）, and the Science Foundation of Yanshan University for the Excellent Ph. D. Students （201204） The authors thank Chen Cai-Lian of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University for her comments on English polishing and problem formulation.
文摘This paper studies the leader-following consensus problem for a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems subject to linearly parameterized uncertainty and disturbance. The problem is solved by integrating the adaptive control technique and the adaptive distributed observer method. The design procedure is illustrated by an example with a group of Van der Pol oscillators as the followers and a harmonic system as the leader.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61303211)Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(LY17F030003,LY15F030009)
文摘In this paper, the leader-following tracking problem of fractional-order multi-agent systems is addressed. The dynamics of each agent may be heterogeneous and has unknown nonlinearities. By assumptions that the interaction topology is undirected and connected and the unknown nonlinear uncertain dynamics can be parameterized by a neural network, an adaptive learning law is proposed to deal with unknown nonlinear dynamics, based on which a kind of cooperative tracking protocols are constructed. The feedback gain matrix is obtained to solve an algebraic Riccati equation. To construct the fully distributed cooperative tracking protocols, the adaptive law is also adopted to adjust the coupling weight. With the developed control laws,we can prove that all signals in the closed-loop systems are guaranteed to be uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, a simple simulation example is provided to illustrate the established result.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.60834002,60873021,and 61004042)the Youth Science Research Project of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications,China(Grant No.A2012-82)the Doctor Start-up Foundation of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications,China(Grant No.A2012-23)
文摘Finite-time consensus problem of the leader-following multi-agent system under switching network topologies is studied in this paper. Based on the graph theory, matrix theory, homogeneity with dilation, and LaSalle＇s invariance principle, the control protocol of each agent using local information is designed, and the detailed analysis of the leader- following finite-time consensus is provided. Some examples and simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61233002)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.N120404019)
文摘In this paper, we focus on circle formation control of multi-agent systems （MAS） with a leader. The circle formation is achieved based on the lead-following and the artificial potential field method. A distributed control law is given to make a group of agents form a circle and consequently achieve an expected angle. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed circle formation strategies are effective.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.61104092,61134007 and 61203147)the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
文摘Consensus problem is investigated for heterogeneous multi-agent systems composed of first-order agents and second-order agents in this paper. Leader-following consensus protocol is adopted to solve consensus problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with time-varying communication and input delays. By constructing Lyapunov-Krasovkii functional, sufficient consensus conditions in linear matrix inequality(LMI) form are obtained for the system under fixed interconnection topology. Moreover, consensus conditions are also obtained for the heterogeneous systems under switching topologies with time delays. Simulation examples are given to illustrate effectiveness of the results.
