The Couple-Group Consensus of Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems with Asynchronous Switching in Cooperative-Competitive Networks

This paper investigates the problem of leader-following or leaderless couple-group consensus of heterogeneous multiagent systems (HMASs) with cooperative-competitive interaction, asynchronous switching, and controller faults. Some novel protocols have been proposed to solve the couple-group consensus of the two kinds of HMASs. Compared with the existing results, asynchronous control, controller faults, leaders, and the competitive-cooperative interaction are all considered in these novel protocols. By using linear matrix inequality, graph theory, Lyapunov functional theory, and model-dependent dwell time technique (MDADT), some sufficient conditions have been gained for the leader-following or leaderless couple-group consensus of these systems. The obtained results show that the couple-group consensus of HMASs can be transformed into determining the stability of the related switching linear system. These results can also be applied to HMASs with weakly connected topology without satisfying the demand of in-degree balance, strong connectivity, or containing a spanning tree. Some simulation experiments are given to prove the validity of the obtained results.