Distributed node-to-node consensus of linear multi-agent systems with directed switching topologies

Abstract

This paper deals with node-to-node consensus tracking problem for multi-agent systems (MASs) with linear dynamics and directed switching topologies. The coordination goal in the present framework is to employ some distributed control laws such that each follower can track its corresponding leader. Unlike most existing works where the relative full state information of neighboring agents are utilized, it is assumed that only the relative output measurements of neighboring agents are available for coordination. To achieve node-to-node consensus in the considered MASs, a new class of observer-based protocols is proposed. By appropriately constructing a topology-dependent multiple Lyapunov function, it is theoretically shown that such a node-to-node consensus in the closed loop MASs equipped with the designed protocols can be guaranteed if each follower can directly or indirectly sense at least one leader over some uniformly bounded time intervals. Finally, a numerical simulation is performed to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical result.