Global Max-Tracking of Multiple Time-Varying Signals Using a Distributed Protocol

This letter presents a distributed protocol for a heterogeneous MAS to track the global maximum of multiple time-varying references. We define this as the
global max-tracking
problem. Compared to the existing max-consensus problems, the global max-tracking problem has more challenges, as the references are time-varying, and no agent has any knowledge about their global maximum a priori. Under the proposed protocol, each agent tracks the global maximum of continuously time-varying references irrespective of their time-derivatives. Thus, the current protocol works for a wide range of time-varying references. A discussion with the numerical simulations exemplifies the efficacy of the proposed global max-tracking protocol.