Leader Selection in Impulsive Multiagent Systems With Switching Topologies

In leader-follower multiagent systems (MASs), seeking an efficient scheme to select a set of agents as leaders is important for realizing the expected cooperative performance. In this article, the problem of minimal leader selection is investigated for impulsive general linear MASs with switching topologies. This study focuses on selecting a set of agents as leaders that receive information from a reference signal directly, while minimizing the number of leaders, subject to consensus tracking performance. First, adopting the average dwell time technique and a time-ratio constraint, an explicit criterion for consensus tracking is derived as prepreparation for leader selection. Second, applying the submodular optimization framework, leader selection metrics are established based on the derived criterion. Third, employing the greedy rule, an efficient leader selection scheme is presented according to the established metrics. The scheme comprises two polynomial-time algorithms that return selected leader sets within a logarithmic bound of the optimum. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed leader selection scheme is verified using an illustrative example.