Distributed <i>k</i> ‐WTA Network for Multi‐Manipulator Competition With Experimental Verifications

ABSTRACT In this article, a new distributed ‐winner‐take‐all (D‐WTA) network is designed and used to construct a dynamic allocation scheme for competitive coordination tasks of multiple manipulators as embodied agents. The scheme is constructed based on the following two aspects. On one hand, with reference to a perspective that the Laplacian matrix is introduced into a ‐WTA network, a quadratic programming (QP) problem used for the competitive coordination of multiple manipulators is designed. Then, inspired by a noise‐suppressing neural dynamics (NSND) method, a D‐WTA network is established by solving this QP problem. On the other hand, combined with the forward kinematics, a D‐WTA dynamic allocation scheme is constructed. In addition, theoretical analyses on the constructed scheme are conducted regarding convergence and robustness. Finally, for verification of the feasibility of the proposed D‐WTA network, simulations and experiments based on multiple manipulators for trajectory‐tracking tasks are conducted. Notably, the proposed scheme has the potential to be extended to other embodied multi‐agent systems.