Leader-Following Consensus of Second-Order Multi-Agent Systems with Switching Topologies

Abstract

A leader-following consensus problem of second-order multi-agent systems with switching topologies is considered in this thesis. The consensus problem of the multi-agent systems is converted to the stability problem of the error dynamical system here. By studying the stability properties of error switched systems consisting of both Hurwitz stable and unstable via the average dwell time approach, the necessary condition for the agents reaching leading-following consensus is obtained. It is found that if the average dwell time is chosen sufficiently large and the total activation time of unstable subsystems is relatively small compared with that of Hurwitz stable subsystems, the multi-agent systems can reach leader-following consensus. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical findings is demonstrated through some numerical examples.