Distributed Consensus of Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems on State-Controlled Switching Topologies

• Main Authors: Kairui Chen, Junwei Wang, Yun Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016-01-01
• Series: Entropy
• Subjects: multi-agent systems; consensus; nonlinear systems; switching topologies; spanning tree
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/18/1/29

This paper considers the consensus problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems under switching directed topologies. Specifically, the dynamics of each agent incorporates an intrinsic nonlinear term and the interaction topology may not contain a spanning tree at any time. By designing a state-controlled switching law, we show that the multi-agent system with the neighbor-based protocol can achieve consensus if the switching topologies jointly contain a spanning tree. Moreover, an easily manageable algebraic criterion is deduced to unravel the underlying mechanisms in reaching consensus. Finally, a numerical example is exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed theoretical results.