Multi-agent supporting systems (MASS): control with centralized estimator of disturbance

A new type of a swarm, named multi-agent supporting system (MASS), is introduced for supporting structures where the configuration formed by many agents must be maintained even though there exist unknown disturbances. A control system for a MASS is also proposed on the basis of a new estimator of disturbance. The proposed disturbance estimator is described by inverting the stable digital inverse system. With this disturbance estimator, the unknown disturbance acting on each agent in the MASS is cancelled by the input, and influences less the output of the system. A computer simulation has been executed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with the control method without the disturbance estimator. >