Couple-group consensus for second-order multi-agent systems with fixed and stochastic switching topologies

This paper deals with the couple-group consensus problem for second-order discrete-time multi-agent systems. Both the fixed topology case and the stochastic switching topology case are considered. The couple-group consensus problem is converted into the stability problem of the error system by a linear transformation. For the fixed topology case, we obtain two different conditions of couple-group consensus. For the stochastic switching topology case, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition of mean-square couple-group consensus. Algorithms are provided to design the allowable control gains. Finally, simulation examples are given to show the usefulness of the theoretical results.