Consensusability of linear multi-agent systems over analog fading networks via dynamic output feedback

This paper studies the dynamic output feedback consensus problem of multi-agent systems over analog fading networks. For the case of undirected communication topology, both sufficient and necessary conditions are presented for mean square consensus of discrete-time LTI multi-agent systems over analog fading networks. It is further shown that in the case of single output, the sufficient condition is also necessary, while for other cases, the gap between the sufficient condition and the necessary condition may be unavoidable. Besides, sufficient and necessary conditions are also provided for the mean square consensus over a balanced directed communication topology by using Lyapunov methods. All the derived criteria demonstrate intricately how system dynamics, communication quality and network topological structure interplay with each other to allow the existence of a linear distributed consensus controller.