This article is concerned with the consensus problem for discrete-time multiagent systems with both state and input delays. Single observer-predictor-based protocols and multiple observer-predictors feedback protocols are simultaneously established to predict the future state such that the input delay that can be arbitrarily large yet bounded is completely compensated. It is shown that the consensus of the multiagent system can be achieved by the single/multiple observer-predictors feedback protocol. Moreover, sufficient conditions guaranteeing the consensus of the multiagent system are provided in terms of the stability of some simple observer-error systems, and the separation principle is discovered. Finally, a numerical example is worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.
K E Y W O R D Sconsensus, input delay compensation, multiagent systems, observer-predictor feedback, state and input delays
INTRODUCTIONIn recent years, distributed coordination of networks of dynamic agents has attracted several researchers due to its broad applications of multiagent systems in many areas including cooperative control of unmanned air vehicles, formation control, 1 flocking, 2 and distributed sensor networks. 3 However, consensus problems have attracted significant interests from the control theory community and has been intensively investigated in the literature. 4-8 Many early results on consensus problem are based on single integrators or second-order dynamics (see, References 1,9,10 and the references therein). Afterward, the consensus problem for high-order linear multiagent systems was studied. 11 For example, the consensus problem of multiagent systems with delays was investigated in Reference 12 by discrete-time predictor feedback, and the consensus problem of multiagent systems with a time-invariant communication topology and consensus disturbance rejection of network-connected dynamic systems were discussed in References 13 and 14, respectively. Generally, time-delays are inevitable in the consensus control. Therefore, consensus of multiagent systems with communication/input delays has been extensively investigated in the literature. For example, the consensus problem for multiagent systems with input and communication delays was studied in Reference 15, both the leaderless consensus problem and the leader-following consensus problem for linear discrete-time multiagent systems under switching network topology were studied in Reference 16, the consensus problem of multiagent systems with nonuniform time-delays and dynamically changing topologies was considered in Reference 17, the consensus and quasi-consensus problems in Int J Robust Nonlinear Control. 2020;30:4003-4021.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rnc