Cooperative control of heterogeneous multi-agent systems in a sampled-data setting

This paper deals with a cooperative control problem of networked heterogeneous input-output passivity-short (PS) multi-agent systems in a sampled-data setting. The dynamics of each system are continuous, whereas the exchange of information on a communication network is operated in a discrete-time manner. The analysis and cooperative control design are transformed into representative forms of discretized systems using a zero-order holder and an ideal sampler. Based on the concept of PS, a design of a distributed static output feedback control for achieving output consensus is proposed. Compared with the concept of passivity, it is shown that PS extends the systems under consideration to higher relative degree and/or non-minimum phase. This extension allows the design of a distributed controller by quantifying the impact of each system in networked operation. Furthermore, properties of PS are discussed both in the continuous and discrete-time domain, and conditions for preserving PS through discretization are presented.