Consensus for heterogeneous multi-agent systems under fixed and switching topologies

The consensus problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems under directed topologies is investigated. For continuous-time systems, a novel consensus algorithm is proposed. Based on a system transformation method, the consensus problem for heterogeneous multi-agent systems is converted into a consensus problem for homogeneous multi-agent systems. Necessary and sufficient conditions are presented to guarantee that the designed consensus algorithm asymptotically solves the consensus for heterogeneous multi-agent systems under a fixed topology. The final convergence states are shown explicitly for this case. Sufficient conditions are given to guarantee that heterogeneous multi-agent systems reach consensus asymptotically under switching topologies. The obtained results are superior obviously to the existing ones in the literature. The counterparts about discrete-time systems are also investigated. Both periodic sampling and nonperiodic sampling are considered. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.