Graph-Based Leader-Following Consensus Analysis With Switching Communication Topologies

This letter investigates the leader-following consensus (LFC) problem of multi-agent systems with switching communication topologies. By indirectly analyzing the state evolution of the followers, a state-dependent switching strategy is designed to achieve LFC of multi-agent systems. The transition relationships among followers across switching topologies are characterized by a novel union residual state transition graph, and the equivalence between LFC and acyclicity is established. To describe transfer-restricted switching relationships among topologies, a switching directed graph is introduced. By analyzing communication relationships between the leader and followers within this graph, an appropriate cycle switching strategy and cycle-dependent switching walk condition are designed to reach LFC in multi-agent systems under transfer-restricted switching. Finally, three numerical examples show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.