Consensus of Multi-agent System via Constrained Invariant Set of a class of Unstable System (2009.06236v2)

Abstract: This work shows an approach to achieve output consensus among heterogeneous agents in a multi-agent environment where each agent is subject to input constraints. The communication among agents is described by a time-varying directed/undirected graph. The approach is based on the well-known Internal Model Principle which uses an unstable reference system. One main contribution of this work is the characterization of the maximal constraint admissible invariant set (MCAI) for the combined agent-reference system. Typically, MCAI sets do not exist for unstable system. This work shows that for an important class of agent-reference system that is unstable, MCAI exists and can be computed. This MCAI set is used in a Reference Governor approach, combined with a projected consensus algorithm, to achieve output consensus of all agents while satisfying constraints of each. Examples are provided to illustrate the approach.