Modified leader-following consensus of time-delay multi-agent systems via sampled control and smart leader

Abstract

In this paper, the consensus problems of multiple agents with continuous-time single-integrator dynamics are studied, where each agent can obtain the position data of its neighboring agents at discrete-time points by using the periodic sampling technology and zero-order hold circuit. The smart leader is introduced, which can adjust the interaction strength between itself and the target point according to the state errors between itself and its neighboring followers. The modified leader-following consensus problem is defined as the leader-following consensus problem when the smart leader is adopted. Different leader-following consensus protocols are obtained for the multi-agent systems with or without sampling delays. The theoretical results, which are analysed with Lyapunov stability theory, can decrease the tracking error of the system, especially for the multi-agent systems with disturbance generated by actuator faults. Some simulation examples and real experiments are presented for illustration.