Consensus of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with switching topologies using input-output feedback linearization

Abstract

In this paper, the leader-following consensus problem of multi-agent systems with nonlinear heterogeneous dynamics and switching topologies is considered. All agent outputs are required to track a leader output which is assumed as a desired value. By input-output feedback linearization, the nonlinear heterogeneous system is decomposed into equivalent linear systems and internal dynamics. Then a distributed auxiliary controller for every agent using local information is designed and a sufficient consensus condition is given under switching topologies with every possible topology containing a directed spanning tree. Furthermore, it is proved that the consensus can be achieved with the same condition for multi-agent systems under switching topologies frequently containing a directed spanning tree. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the control protocol.