Sensitivity Analysis of Cooperating Multi-agent Systems with Uncertain Connection Weights

The interaction parameters in a system of interconnected cooperative agents (e.g. communication links) are susceptible to uncertainties. This paper provides systematic uncertainty quantification technique to study the effect of random inputs in the system of multiple agents governed by single integrator dynamics. In essence, the paper tries to answer the following question, “Who is the weakest link?” Sparse grid-based stochastic collocation in generalized polynomial chaos expansion framework is employed. Further, variance-based sensitivity indices are computed and analyzed to understand the significance of random variables on the probability distribution of the system responses. Numerical simulations are performed for uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis in the consensus and reference tracking problems as applied to multiagent systems.