Bipartite consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems based on delayed output signals

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the bipartite consensus problem via a sampled-data delayed output feedback consensus protocol in the presence of competition among the agents for a class of feedback nonlinear multi-agent systems. Firstly, the bipartite consensus problem of the system under investigation is converted into a stabilisation problem of another system by introducing a suitable state transformation. Then, a sampled-data delayed output feedback consensus protocol is designed by making use of all agents' output signals sampled at the present time and all agents' delayed output signals at the preceding n−1 sampling points. By virtue of Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, it is verified that the bipartite consensus problem of the system under study can be addressed by the designed consensus protocol, with the sampling period T and constant gain L selected appropriately. Two simulation examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed consensus protocol.