On Distributed and Cooperative Control Design for Networks of Dynamical Systems

This thesis contributes to the development of a cooperative control theory for homogeneous and heterogeneous multi-agent systems consisting of identical and non-identical dynamical agents, respectively. The goal is to explain fundamental effects of non-identical agent dynamics on the behavior of a distributed system and, primarily, to develop suitable control design methods for a wide range of multi-agent coordination problems. Output synchronization problems as well as cooperative disturbance rejection and reference tracking problems in multi-agent systems are investigated. Suitable controller design methods for networks consisting of identical or non-identical linear time-invariant systems, linear parameter-varying systems, and selected classes of nonlinear systems are developed. These controller design methods provide a solution to a wide variety of distributed coordination and cooperative control scenarios.