Consensus in multi-agent systems subject to input saturation and time-varying delays

This paper deals with the problem of consensus in multi-agent systems. The consensus is investigated considering directed networks composed by identical agents described by linear models of arbitrary order, subject to input saturation and non-uniform time-varying delays. The main results are sufficient conditions for consensus analysis and design of distributed consensus protocols for multi-agent systems. In addition, because the saturation might prevent the multi-agent system to attain consensus on some set of initial conditions, it is also proposed a strategy to calculate a region in which the consensus is guaranteed. The results follow from the Lyapunov-Krasovskii theory and are formulated in the linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) framework. Finally, we present examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in contrast with similar approaches existing in the literature.

Automated summary

This paper explores the consensus problem in multi-agent systems, providing sufficient conditions for consensus analysis and design of distributed consensus protocols. It also proposes a strategy to calculate a region where consensus is guaranteed in the presence of input saturation, based on Lyapunov-Krasovskii theory and linear matrix inequalities framework. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method compared to existing approaches in the literature.