Quasi-Consensus Control of Delayed Multi-Agent Systems With Stochastic Communication Protocols and Amplify-and-Forward Relays

Abstract

In this paper, the observer-based quasi-consensus control problem is investigated for a class of discrete-time multi-agent systems subject to time-varying delay. To improve communication quality and extend transmission distance, a stochastic communication protocol and an amplify-and-forward relay mechanism are incorporated. During the process of signal amplification and transmission in the AaF relay, stochastic packet loss is considered, which introduces additional complexity into the system analysis. The main objective is to design a distributed observer-based control strategy capable of handling time-varying delays, stochastic scheduling governed by a Markov chain, and random packet dropouts. Sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the achievement of quasi-consensus in probability among the agents. These conditions are formulated in terms of matrix inequalities through which the required gain matrices are computed. A simulation example is provided to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control approach under realistic communication constraints.