Output feedback-based consensus control for nonlinear time delay multiagent systems

This paper focuses on the leader-following consensus problem for a class of identical nonlinear time delay multiagent systems. Different from the existing results, it is the first time that an output feedback-based consensus control algorithm is proposed for the multiagent systems based on a fixed directed topology. A novel dynamic compensator is constructed for each follower by only using the follower output and the relative output information of its neighbor agents. The distributed controller is designed for each follower based on the compensator, which is independent of time delays in the agent state. It is proved strictly that each state variable of followers can asymptotically track that of the leader based on the constructed controller. The conditions imposed on nonlinear terms are relaxed and the proposed algorithm has a simple design procedure. Moreover, the proposed control design method is applied to the consensus problem of chemical reactor systems. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed consensus protocols.