Distributed Consensus of Linear Multi-Agent Systems with Adaptive Dynamic Protocols

TL;DR

This paper introduces two novel adaptive dynamic protocols for achieving distributed consensus in multi-agent systems with linear dynamics, ensuring convergence without global information, even under switching graphs.

Contribution

The paper proposes two fully distributed adaptive protocols based on relative output, applicable to general linear multi-agent systems with undirected and switching graphs.

Findings

Consensus achieved under both protocols for connected graphs

Protocols do not require global information

Effective with leader-follower and switching communication topologies

Abstract

This paper considers the distributed consensus problem of multi-agent systems with general continuous-time linear dynamics. Two distributed adaptive dynamic consensus protocols are proposed, based on the relative output information of neighboring agents. One protocol assigns an adaptive coupling weight to each edge in the communication graph while the other uses an adaptive coupling weight for each node. These two adaptive protocols are designed to ensure that consensus is reached in a fully distributed fashion for any undirected connected communication graphs without using any global information. A sufficient condition for the existence of these adaptive protocols is that each agent is stabilizable and detectable. The cases with leader-follower and switching communication graphs are also studied.