Multiagent Networks with Misbehaving Nodes: Control with Driver and Observer Nodes†

As opposed to applying control signals to each node in multiagent networks for suppressing the negative effects of misbehaving nodes, this paper focuses on applying control signals to a small subset of nodes due to physical (i.e., inaccessible nodes) and/or economical (i.e., large number of nodes) constraints. To achieve this goal, we have recently focused on how to control misbehaving multiagent networks via sending control signals to a small subset of nodes (i.e., driver nodes) in the network, where the control signals are generated by their state information. In this study, we now consider that the control signals applied to driver nodes are generated based on the state information of other subset of nodes (i.e., observer nodes) in the network. We characterize which nodes in the network behave as desired based on the selection of driver nodes and observer nodes in control of misbehaving multiagent networks. We also present several illustrative numerical examples to demonstrate the theoretical contributions of this paper.