Output consensus of networked multi-agent systems

Abstract

The output consensus problem for networks of discrete-time linear agents with heterogeneous dynamics is investigated in this paper, where networks have a constant communication delay. So as to eliminate the harmful effect of the communication delay, this paper draws the predictive control method into compensating for the network delay actively. A new distributed protocol is put forward with the predictions of agents' outputs at current time, instead of accessible lingering information. While agents' states are not measurable, a sufficient condition of output consensus is obtained for heterogeneous discrete-time multi-agent systems with a constant communication delay. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed result.