Decentralized event-triggered control of networked systems-part 1: Leader-follower consensus under switching topologies

A decentralized controller that uses event-triggered scheduling is developed for the leader-follower consensus problem under switching communication topologies. To reduce inter-agent communication, a feedback controller is designed based on state estimates of neighboring agents that are updated by scheduled communication. The state estimates are updated when the network topology switches or a decentralized trigger condition is met. The trigger condition is designed such that the control requires reduced inter-agent communication for feedback while still achieving leader-follower consensus under switching topologies. Since the control strategy produces switched dynamics, analysis is provided to show that Zeno behavior is avoided by developing a positive constant lower bound on the minimum inter-event interval. A Lyapunov-based convergence analysis is also provided to indicate asymptotic convergence of the developed control methodology.