Leader-Following Consensus of Linear Multiagent Systems with State Observer under Switching Topologies

The leader-following consensus problem of higher order multiagent systems is considered. The dynamics of each agent are given in general form of linear system, and the communication topology among the agents is assumed to be directed and switching. To track the leader, two kinds of distributed observer-based consensus protocols are proposed for each following agent, whose distributed observers are used to estimate the leader’s state and tracking error based on the relative outputs of the neighboring agents, respectively. Some sufficient consensus conditions are established by using parameter-dependent Lyapunov function method under a class of directed interaction topologies. As special cases, the consensus conditions for balanced and undirected interconnection topology cases can be obtained directly. The protocol design technique is based on algebraic graph theory, Riccati equation, and Sylvester equation. Finally, a simulation example is given to illustrate our obtained result.