Fully Distributed Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems: A Prescribed-Time Observer-Based Approach

This paper studies the fully distributed leader-following consensus problem of multi-agent systems based on the relative output information. To conquer this issue, a prescribed-time observer-based adaptive consensus protocol is suggested. Specifically, regarding the control inputs of neighboring nodes as unknown input, a prescribed-time unknown input observer (UIO) is constructed to reconstruct the consensus error in the finite convergence time which can be determined in advance and is independent on the initial values. Then, based on the estimated consensus error, the fully distributed control protocol is developed, where the adaptive coupling gain is employed to avoid the dependence on the global information. Furthermore, sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the leader-following consensus. Finally, the numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed control protocol.