Semi-global output consensus of linear agents with external disturbances and actuator saturation: An output regulation approach

This paper studies semi-global leader-following output consensus of a multi-agent system. Each follower agent in the system, described by a general linear system subject to external disturbances and actuator saturation, is to track the leader agent. Conditions on the agent dynamics are identified under which a low gain feedback based linear state control algorithm is constructed for each follower agent such that the leader-following output consensus is achieved when the communication topology among the agents is a directed graph that contains no loop and the leader is globally reachable. In addition, discussions and simulations are also provided for the output consensus in the presence of actuator saturation.