Autonomous addition of agents to an existing group using genetic algorithm

This paper presents an idea of how new agents can be added autonomously to a group of existing agents without changing the existing communication topology among them. Autonomous agent addition to existing Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) can give a strategic advantage during the execution of a critical beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) mission. The addition of the agent essentially means that new connections with existing agents are established. It is obvious that the consensus control energy increases as the number of agent increases considering a specific consensus protocol. The objective of this work is to establish the new connections in a way such that the consensus energy increase due to the new agents is minimal. The updated topology, including new connections, must contain a spanning tree to maintain the stability of the MASs network. The updated optimal topology is obtained by solving minimum additional consensus control energy using the Two-Dimensional Genetic Algorithm. The results obtained are convincin