A new consensus algorithm for multi-agent systems via dynamic output feedback control

In this paper, we study a consensus problem for multi-agent systems via dynamic output feedback control. The entire system is decentralized in the sense that each agent can only obtain output information from its neighbor agents. In contrast to the existing graph Laplacian based algorithm, we propose to reduce the consensus problem on hand to solving a strict matrix inequality using appropriate coordinate transformation, and also propose a homotopy-based method for solving the matrix inequality. It turns out that our algorithm includes the existing graph Laplacian based algorithm as a special case, and can deal with various additional control requirements such as convergence rate specification and actuator limitations.