Consensus of output-coupled high-order linear multi-agent systems under deterministic and Markovian switching networks

Consensus problem for high-order multi-agent systems is considered under deterministic and Markovian switching topologies. Only relative output information of agents is assumed to be available through the networks. First, a necessary and sufficient condition for achieving a consensus under a fixed communication network is presented. Based on this result and the stability of switched systems, a high-order multi-agent system with the proposed low-gain controller is shown to reach a consensus under deterministic switching network if the total time when the network is disconnected is, in some senses, smaller than the total time of the network being connected. Furthermore, the conditions sufficient for a high-order multi-agent system to reach an almost sure and mean-square consensus, under Markovian switching networks, are presented. Finally, illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the results.