Distributed event-triggered consensus in multi-agent systems with non-linear protocols

In this study, the distributed event-triggered consensus problem in multi-agent systems with non-linear protocols is discussed. In the proposed strategies, each agent adopts a local control based on a combination of non-linear functions of relative states, and the couplings among agents are not necessarily symmetric and constant. By using a graph-theoretical-reasoning based Lyapunov function, the authors present two kinds of distributed event-triggered strategies, namely state-dependent and time-dependent strategies. Through the transmission of states at discrete instants, the former can simultaneously reduce the updates of both control and communication. By virtue of global information such as the path between arbitrary two agents, the latter can decide the updating time sequence for each agent by its own state and a given time-dependent function. In both cases, a positive lower bound for inter-event times can be found such that the Zeno behaviour is eliminated. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the above two strategies.