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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07997 |
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| _version_ | 1866917198590640128 |
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| author | Ma, Yuwen Spurgeon, Sarah K. Li, Tao Chen, Boli |
| author_facet | Ma, Yuwen Spurgeon, Sarah K. Li, Tao Chen, Boli |
| contents | This paper investigates privacy-preserving distributed cooperative control for multi-agent systems within the framework of differential privacy. In cooperative control, communication noise is inevitable and is usually regarded as a disturbance that impairs coordination. This work revisits such noise as a potential privacy-enhancing factor. A linear quadratic regulator (LQR)-based framework is proposed for agents communicating over noisy channels, \textcolor{black}{where the noise variance depends on the relative state differences between neighbouring agents.} The resulting controller achieves formation while protecting the reference signals from inference attacks. It is analytically proven that the inherent communication noise can guarantee bounded $(ε,δ)$-differential privacy without adding dedicated privacy noise, while the \textcolor{black}{system cooperative tracking error} remains bounded and convergent in both the mean-square and almost-sure sense. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_07997 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Can Inherent Communication Noise Guarantee Privacy in Distributed Cooperative Control ? Ma, Yuwen Spurgeon, Sarah K. Li, Tao Chen, Boli Systems and Control This paper investigates privacy-preserving distributed cooperative control for multi-agent systems within the framework of differential privacy. In cooperative control, communication noise is inevitable and is usually regarded as a disturbance that impairs coordination. This work revisits such noise as a potential privacy-enhancing factor. A linear quadratic regulator (LQR)-based framework is proposed for agents communicating over noisy channels, \textcolor{black}{where the noise variance depends on the relative state differences between neighbouring agents.} The resulting controller achieves formation while protecting the reference signals from inference attacks. It is analytically proven that the inherent communication noise can guarantee bounded $(ε,δ)$-differential privacy without adding dedicated privacy noise, while the \textcolor{black}{system cooperative tracking error} remains bounded and convergent in both the mean-square and almost-sure sense. |
| title | Can Inherent Communication Noise Guarantee Privacy in Distributed Cooperative Control ? |
| topic | Systems and Control |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07997 |