Consensus of linear multi‐agent systems under switching topology by sampled‐data output feedback control

Abstract

AbstractThis paper studies both synchronous and asynchronous consensus problems for linear multi‐agent systems under switching topology. A novel distributed continuous‐discrete observer is established by solely using the relative sampled output messages, which needs neither to store messages from neighboring agents nor estimate the information of itself and all neighbors. Based on the estimation provided by the distributed observer, a distributed output feedback control with digital form is synthesized, which allows each agent to update the value of its controller at the synchronous/asynchronous sampling instants. It is of interest to see that, for the class of chain‐integrator multi‐agent systems, the proposed control approach allows the sampling periods to be chosen freely and thus would be more practical in some situations from the perspective of energy saving. The theoretical results are illustrated by formation flying of spacecraft and synchronization of multiple double‐integrators.