Consensus of a heterogeneous multi-agent system with input saturation

In this paper, the consensus problem for a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with input saturation is investigated. The heterogeneous multi-agent system is composed of first-order agents and second-order agents. We consider that only a few first-order agents are restrained and their control input must be bounded. Firstly, a consensus control protocol under leaderless network is proposed. By applying the graph theory and LaSalle invariance principle, the protocol is proved feasible. Secondly, the consensus problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems is discussed with a static leader and an active leader, respectively. Particularly, when the velocity of the active leader cannot be obtained in real time, a new neighbour-based consensus control protocol based on distributed observers and auxiliary systems is developed. Some sufficient conditions for consensus are established under fixed undirected connected topology. Finally, some examples were presented to illustrate the theoretical results. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.