Observer-based consensus for nonlinear multi-agent systems with intermittent communication

The article studies a consensus control problem for second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with a leader where the velocity of the active leader cannot be obtained in real time. Under the common assumption that the multiple agents can communicate with their neighbors only during a sequence of discontinuous time intervals, a new neighbour-based consensus control protocol based on observers is developed for each agent. With the help of multiple Lyapunov function technology, some sufficient conditions are derived such that the follower agents can track the leader and keep pace with the leader at the same time under fixed topology. Moreover, the similar results are given under the switching topology. Finally, numerical examples are presented for illustration.