Autonomous Corrective Action in Consensus Tracking Algorithms with Unknown Delays

Consensus tracking problem with constant heterogeneous communication and input delays is studied for double-integrator systems. Contrary to previous works on this topic where the delays are known a priori, this paper studies the convergence of agents to a general desired trajectory when the delays are not known in advance. To solve the tracking problem, we formulate a switching control protocol that consists of a coupled single-integrator estimator and a decentralized tracking controller for an individual agent. We present a delay observer design for each individual agent to determine the respective input delays when these are not known a priori. The communication delays are obtained from the time-stamp on the received data. Exact tracking or bounded tracking with unknown constant delays is possible with the aid of presented autonomous corrective action. Simulation results are performed to validate the efficacy of the proposed autonomous corrective action while guaranteeing consensus tracking.