Asynchronous distributed optimization with minimal communication and connectivity preservation

Abstract-- We consider problems where multiple agents cooperate to control their individual state so as to optimize a common objective while communicating with each other to exchange state information. Since communication costs can be significant, we seek conditions under which communication of state information among nodes can be minimized while still ensuring that the optimization process converges. In prior work, an asynchronous (event-driven) optimization scheme was proposed that limits communication to instants when some state estimation error function at a node exceeds a threshold. It was shown that convergence is guaranteed under no communication delays. In this paper, we first prove that convergence is still guaranteed under bounded communication delays. Next, we propose a decentralized mechanism which provably preserves network connectivity by using each node's routing information. We apply the optimization scheme to a sensor network coverage control problem where the obj...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2009
• Where: CDC
• Authors: Minyi Zhong, Christos G. Cassandras
• Keywords: CDC 2009, Communication, Communication Costs, Communication Delays, Control Systems