Design of nonlinear consensus protocols under directed communication topologies

In this paper, the consensus problem of multi-agent systems is addressed. First, we demonstrate the block cascade property of the information flow via the directed communication topology decomposition. Based on this property, we then present a feasible framework to design nonlinear protocols by means of the input-to-state stability (ISS) theory. In particular, we investigate systems of single-integrator dynamics with a class of nonlinear protocols. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to show the application of the design method.