Leader-Following Consensus of Heterogeneous Linear Multi-Agent Systems with Unbounded Distributed Transmission Delays

Abstract

This paper studies the leader-following consensus problem of linear multi-agent systems with unbounded distributed transmission delays. A novel distributed observer is first proposed to estimate the state of leader in the presence of unbounded distributed transmission delays. Then a distributed controller is further developed without using any prior knowledge of unbounded transmission delays. It is shown that not only the leader-following consensus of multi-agent systems can be achieved exponentially but also an estimate of the exponential convergence rate of consensus can be obtained. In addition, our results include those results on bounded distributed delays and constant delays as special cases. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.