Distributed Constrained Consensus of Utilities via a Self Evaluation Approach

This paper investigates the problem of distributed constrained consensus of utilities for multiple networked nodes, which is essentially challenging in view of the fact that local constraints may hinder the global optimization across the network. Focusing on this problem, a generalized framework is developed via a self evaluation approach, in which each node uses utility evaluations to update individual states by interacting with neighbors only. Following the framework, the distributed constrained consensus algorithms is derived, with theoretical analyses presented to show the convergence and stability. In addition, an approximation method is proposed as well for ease of engineering implementation. Finally, illustrative examples are provided and analyzed to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.