Output consensus of networked multi-agent systems with time-delay compensation scheme

The output consensus problem of linear discrete-time multi-agent systems (DTMASs) with heterogeneous dynamics and a communication delay is investigated in this paper. In order to remove the negative effects of the communication delay, the networked predictive control scheme is introduced to compensate for the network delay actively. A novel distributed protocol is proposed with the predictions of agents׳ outputs at current time, instead of available outdated data. For DTMASs with heterogeneous agents and a constant communication delay, the sufficient conditions of output consensus are obtained while agents׳ states are not measurable. Simulation results are further presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.