Consensusability of linear multi-agent systems with time delay

This paper studies the consensusability of a continuous-time linear time-invariant multi-agent system (MAS) with time delay in an undirected network with N nodes. We show that the MAS can achieve consensus if and only if N - 1 time-delay subsystems associated with the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix of the network are simultaneously asymptotically stable. By employing a linear matrix inequality (LMI) method, we present a controller design method for a MAS to reach consensus. We also obtain a bound on the maximum time delay for consensusability for a MAS with first-order integrator dynamics by using frequency-domain analysis. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.