Consensus for Second-Order Multiagent Systems Under Two Types of Sampling Mechanisms: A Time-Varying Gain Observer Method.

Abstract

This article considers the consensus of second-order multiagent systems (MASs) under a directed communication topology. By introducing time-varying gains into observers, two types of novel continuous-discrete-time observers are presented to estimate state information of agents under two sampling mechanisms, respectively, namely: 1) a synchronous nonuniform sampling (SNS) mechanism and 2) an asynchronous nonuniform sampling (ANS) mechanism. A new design method of the time-varying gain observer is proposed, in that it can allow for one to select a consensus protocol with lower cost observers to attain the consensus task. Only sampled position information needs to be transmitted in designing consensus protocols for the MSAs, and neither velocity information nor control input information is required. Under the SNS mechanism, a consensus condition is obtained and it is shown that the introduction of time-varying gains in the observers indeed can improve their convergence. Under the ANS mechanism, the corresponding consensus protocol allows the sampling and transmission of different agents to be asynchronous and aperiodic, which means that each agent may sample and transmit its information in line with its own sampling requirements. Furthermore, each sampling period can be arbitrarily selected within a certain range while ensuring the consensus of the MASs. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.