How to edit the name of a variable which is an object of a class?

Hello All,

I am working on a multi-agent model predictive control problem.

For each agent, I have a separate subclass and superclass, e.g., for 3 agents, I have 3 pairs of classes. I should mention that I have a separate mfile for each class.

In this multi-agent system, agents need to communicate with each and update certain properties after communication. What I need to do is to update these properties in the loop.

After searching online, this question thread was the best thing I could find but I do not know how to use it for the properties of a class.

Here is a minimal demonstration of what I need to do:

In the following code, we have 3 agents that need to communicate with each other. In each time instance, only two agents communicate with each other.

Gridsys1, GridSys2, and GridSys3 are instances of three classes that contain the system information for each agent. I need to update the properties neighbor_ID and neighbor_Y for every two agents that are communicating (agent i and agent j according to the code).

I would appreciate it if you can help me change the following code such that I can use the generic identifiers i and j in updating the properties of every two classes corresponding to agent i and j.

EDIT:

More clealry, I need to be able to change GridSys1.neighbor_ID to GridSysi.neighbor_ID (the subclass related to agent i) and change GridSys2.neighbor_ID to GridSysj.neighbor_ID (the subclass related to agent j). Also, I need to change the numbers in ID2 to IDj (the variable related to agent j), and so on.

I need to add that ID2, ID1, Y_noisy_2 and Y_noisy_1 are outputs of the following optimizer objects.

 [GridSys1, ID1, y1, Zeta1, Y_act1, S_hat1,S1, Y_noisy_1, it1, U1] = GridSys1.apply_input();
 [GridSys2, ID2, y2, Zeta2, Y_act2, S_hat2,S2, Y_noisy_2, it2, U2] = GridSys2.apply_input();
 [GridSys2, ID3, y3, Zeta3, Y_act3, S_hat3,S3, Y_noisy_3, it3, U3] = GridSys2.apply_input();

for i = 1:3
    neighbors = find(A(i,:)==1) % A is the adjacny matrix of the multi-agent system to find the neighbors of agent i
    neighbors = neighbors(~ismember(neighbors, i))
    
    for j = 1: length(neighbors) % here agent i communicates with agent j 

        GridSys1.neighbor_ID = ID2;
        GridSys2.neighbor_ID = ID1;
        
        GridSys1.neighbor_Y = Y_noisy_2;
        
        
        GridSys2.neighbor_Y = Y_noisy_1;
        
        
        [GridSys1, status1] = GridSys1.compute_input(controller1);
        [GridSys2, status2] = GridSys2.compute_input(controller2);
        [GridSys3, status3] = GridSys3.compute_input(controller3);
    end
end

[Matt J]

I have 3 pairs of classes.

3 pairs = 3x2=6. So, you have a total of 6 distinct parent classdef files?

Gridsys1, GridSys2, and GridSys3 are three subclasses

I'm not sure you are distinguishing being "classes" and "objects". If the Gridsys1,2,3 are classes, why are they treated as objects in your code? How are they related to the 6 parent classes above? Does each parent class have 3 subclasses?

[Nasim]

Thank you for your response!

Yes, I have 6 classes in totoal and I have 6 distinct files.

Gridsys1, GridSys2, and GridSys3 are three subclasses that each inherites from a distinct parent class.

I am not sure if I understnad clearly what you mean by traeting class as objects. For example, Gridsys1 is an instance of the class.

GridSys1 = grid_system1(); 

[Nasim]

I added some more expmantion to my post to make it more clear.

[Matt J]

Gridsys1, GridSys2, and GridSys3 are three subclasses that each inherites from a distinct parent class.

Here, you say that Gridsys1 is the name of a subclass...

I am not sure if I understnad clearly what you mean by traeting class as objects. For example, Gridsys1 is an instance of the class.

....but then here you say it is an instance of a class. You are mixing names of classes with names of instances in your description, creating confusion...

[Nasim]

Yes, you are right! I edited my post to correct this mistake!

[Matt J]

If so, I think my answer below is what you're asking for.

[Stephen23]

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

[Nasim]

@Stephen23 Thank you for sharing this thread!

Answer 1

[Matt J]

This might be what you want.

obj={GridSys1,GridSys2,GridSys3}; %list of objects

[I,J]=find(A.*(1-eye(size(A))));

K=numel(I);

for k=1:K
    
    [i,j]=deal(I(k),J(k)]); %the k-th pair
    
    
 [obj{i}, ID1, y1, Zeta1, Y_act1, S_hat1,S1, Y_noisy_1, it1, U1] = obj{i}.apply_input();
 [obj{j}, ID2, y2, Zeta2, Y_act2, S_hat2,S2, Y_noisy_2, it2, U2] = obj{j}.apply_input();
 
 
            obj{i}.neighbor_ID = ID2;
            obj{j}.neighbor_ID = ID1;
        
            obj{i}.neighbor_Y =  Y_noisy_2;
            obj{j}.neighbor_Y =  Y_noisy_1;
        
    
end

[Nasim]

Thank you! It was excatly what I needed!