CONSENSUS OF DISCRETE-TIME LINEAR MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS WITH OBSERVER-TYPE PROTOCOLS

This paper concerns the consensus of discrete-time multi-agent systems with linear or linearized dynamics. An observer-type protocol based on the relative outputs of neighboring agents is proposed. The consensus of such a multi-agent system with a directed communication topology can be cast into the stability of a set of matrices with the same low dimension as that of a single agent. The notion of discrete-time consensus region is then introduced and analyzed. For neurally stable agents, it is shown that there exists an observer-type protocol having a bounded consensus region in the form of an open unit disk, provided that each agent is stabilizable and detectable. An algorithm is further presented to construct a protocol to achieve consensus with respect to all the communication topologies containing a spanning tree. Moreover, for the case where the agents have no poles outside the unit circle, an algorithm is proposed to construct a protocol having an origin-centered disk of radius delta (0 < delta < 1) as its consensus region. Finally, the consensus algorithms are applied to solve formation control problems of multi-agent systems.Mathematics, AppliedSCI(E)0ARTICLE2,SI489-5051