Leader-following almost output consensus for discrete-time heterogeneous multi-agent systems in the presence of external disturbances

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the problem of leader-following almost output consensus for discrete-time multi-agent systems with heterogeneous follower agents. Conditions on agent dynamics, the communication topology and how the disturbance enters the agent dynamics are established under which leader-following almost output consensus can be achieved, that is, the leader-following output consensus can be reached with any pre-specified level of accuracy and the effect of the disturbance on the leader-following consensus can be attenuated to any pre-specified level. A family of state feedback consensus protocols are constructed by using the low gain feedback design technique and a modified discrete-time Riccati equation. These consensus protocols are shown to achieve leader-following almost output consensus. Additional conditions are identified under which output feedback results are established. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed consensus protocols.