Consensus of discrete-time multi-agent systems with consecutive packet losses in directed communication topology

In this paper, consensus analysis and design are investigated for discrete-time multi-agent systems (MASs) with consecutive packet losses in communication links of directed communication topology. It is assumed that at each transmitted instant, the packet loss is stochastic and described by Bernoulli distribution, but during a given time window, the data could be successfully transmitted to the agent from each of its neighbors. First, we utilize the incidence matrix of a directed spanning tree of the communication topology to construct a linear transformation matrix so that the consensus problem is equivalently transformed into a mean square asymptotic stability problem of a reduced-order system. Second, by using Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional approach, we derive some sufficient conditions of consensus criterion in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). These conditions express the relationship among the control gain matrix, packet loss rate, and the number of consecutive packet losses. Based on the conditions, gain matrix in the consensus protocol is designed to guarantee the MAS with stochastic packet losses to achieve mean square asymptotic consensus. Moreover, for the special case of undirected communication topology, by using the matrix decomposition method, the variables of LMIs are transformed into the low-order conditions independent of the network size. Finally, some numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.