Proceedings of the 33rd Chinese Control Conference

July 28-30, 2014, Nanjing, China

Consensus of second-order multi-agent system under average

dwell-time switching topologies
PAN Huan1 , NIAN Xiao-hong2
1. School of Physics Electrical Information Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, P. R. China
E-mail: pan198303@gmail.com
2. School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410004 P. R. China
E-mail: xhnian@mail.csu.edu.cn
Abstract: The consensus of second-order multi-agent with undirected and switching topology is studied in the paper. Through
the introduction of average dwell time, a switching law is presented. Under the switching law, the proof of consensus of multi-
agent system is equivalent to the stability of switching linear system. A piecewise Lyapunov function is adopted to prove the
stability of switching system. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Key Words: Consensus, Multi-agent system, Average dwell time, Switching topologies

1 Introduction and switching topology [13, 14, 16]; Sun, Zhao and Ru-
an analyzed leader-following consensus problem of noise
Recently, consensus problems have been studied exten-
perturbed multi-agent systems with time-varying delays and
sively in coordination control of multi-agent systems, part-
switching topology [15]; Qin, Gao, and Zheng introduced a
ly owning to the potential broad application in various ar-
new graph theoretical method to dealing with the consensus
eas, including distributed sensor networks, formation con-
problems for second-order agents under switching topolo-
trol, flocking and swarm analysis and rendezvous problem.
gy [17]; Zhang, Chen, and Yu proposed an impulsive pro-
When the multi-agent system moves harmoniously, commu-
tocol to solve the consensus of the second-order multi-agent
nications between agents are usually intermittent due to ex-
systems with switching topologies [18]; Hu, Liu, Xuan and
ternal disturbances and/or subjected to communication range
et al developed a time-delayed impulsive consensus con-
limitations. That is to say that the interaction topology be-
trol scheme to solve the consensus problem of second-order
tween agents is dynamic with time. Therefore, to investigate
multi-agent systems with switching topologies [19].
consensus of multi-agent under switching topologies is more
Refs. [11–19] all consider information exchange topolo-
realistic in practical applications.
gies switch randomly with time, but second-order consensus
Consensus of multi-agent under switching topology was
protocols always contain some scalars. In some cases these
first proposed by Olfati-Saber and Murry in [1]. Then Ren
scalars will vary with time too. As a result, varying scalars
gave an important conclusion that information consensus
will lead to instability of second-order multi-agent system.
under dynamically changing interaction topologies can be
Therefore, this paper will discuss a new case that not on-
achieved asymptotically if the union of the directed interac-
ly communication topologies switch with time but also the
tion graphs have a spanning tree [2]. Following this train
scalars in consensus protocol will be piecewise linear func-
of thought, more and more scholars have paid attention to
tions. It is assumed that communication topology and the
the consensus under switching topologies. Refs. [3–6] dis-
scalars change consistently, namely, information topology
cussed consensus problem in networks of dynamic agents
and scalars keep constant over one switching time interval.
with switching topologies as well as delays. Stochastic
Each switching time intervals are not necessary equal, and
switch was considered in [7–10] which assumed that switch-
the concept of ”average dwell time” is introduced. Through
ing process is driven by a finite ergodic Markov chain with a
designing a switching law, the condition of achieving con-
topology set and corresponding transition probability matrix.
sensus of second-order multi-agent system is obtained.
It is worth to note that the results mentioned above al-
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section
l focuss on first-order multi-agent systems. With the de-
2 provides some preliminary knowledge about graph theory,
velopment of consensus theory, second-order consensus of
and the switching model with average dwell-time. In Section
multi-agent system with switching topology has come forth
3, consensus of multi-agent system under switching law is
continuously [11–19]. Different from first-order dynamic-
analyzed. Some numerical examples are given to verity the
s, consensus of double-integrator multi-agent systems which
results proposed in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 concludes
includes two state variables one is position and the other is
the whole paper.
velocity is more challenging and interesting [20]. Therein-
to, Ren studied the second-order consensus algorithm un- 2 Notation and Preliminaries
der the case of switching topologies and reference models
[11]; Lin and Jia investigated distributed consensus prob- 2.1 Graph Theory
lems in networks of second-order agents with time-delay The communication topology of n agents is modeled by
an undirected graph G = (V, E, A) in this paper, where
This work is supported by Research Starting Funds for Imported Tal-
V = {v1 , · · · , vn }, E ⊆ V ×V and A = [aij ] ∈ Rn×n repre-
ents, Ningxia University (No.BQD2012004), Ph.D. Programs Foundation
of Ministry of Education of China (20110162110041), and National Natu- sent the set of nodes, the set of edges and a weighted adjacen-
ral Science Foundation of China (U1134108, 61075065, 61321003). cy matrix with non-negative adjacency elements aij , respec-

1716
    
tively. An edge eij = (vi , vj ) ∈ E in an undirected graph G 0 1 0 0
where A = , Bσ(t) = . It is
denotes that nodes i and j can receive information from each 0 0 γ1 (t) γ2 (t)
other. The adjacency elements associated with the edges of assumed that γ1 (t), γ2 (t) and G(t) vary consistently with
a weighted undirected graph are positive aij > 0 if eij ∈ E, time, they keep constant over one switching time interval.
and aij = 0 otherwise. The adjacency elements associated σ(t) : [t0 , ∞) →  = {1, 2, · · · , N } is a piecewise con-
with the edges of a weighted undirected graph have the prop- stant function about time, called a switching signal, and
erty that aij = aji , ∀i = j. The set of neighbors of node vi N > 1 denotes the number of all possible undirected graphs.
is denoted by N (G, i) = {vj ∈ V : (vi , vj ) ∈ E}. The node It is obvious that (4) is a switching system. To prove
indexes belong to a finite index set I = {1, 2, · · · , n}. the consensus of system (4), some transformation is need-
A path on G from node i1 to il is a sequence of ordered ed.
 Letting Z(t)
 = (V −1 ⊗ I2 )η(t), where V −1 =
T
edges in the form of (ik , ik+1 ), k = 1, · · · , l − 1. An 1 1
, then the following equation is obvious
undirected graph is connected if there exists a path from 1 −In−1
any node i to any other node j. The Laplacian matrix
L = [lij ] ∈ Rn×n associated with A is defined as Ż(t) = (V −1 ⊗ I2 )(In ⊗ A)(V ⊗ I2 )
 
lii = aij , lij = −aij . −(V −1 ⊗ I2 )(Lσ (t) ⊗ Bσ(t) )(V ⊗ I2 ) Z(t).(5)
i=j
By using the properties of Kronecker product, system (5) can
For an undirected graph , L is symmetric and semidefinite, be reduced as
furthermore, all the nonzero eigenvalues of L are positive, 
and zero is a simple eigenvalue of L with eigenvector 1 = Ż(t) = In ⊗ A − (V −1 Lσ(t) V ) ⊗ Bσ(t) Z(t). (6)
[1 1 · · · 1]T if the undirected graph is connected.
For the Laplacian matrix Lσ(t) , system (6) is equivalent to
2.2 Switching Model with Average Dwell-time
   
Consider a second-order multi-agent system described as 0 0T
Ż(t) = In ⊗ A − ⊗ Bσ(t) Z(t), (7)
 0 L22σ(t)
ẋi (t) = xi (t)  
, i ∈ I, (1) where rank L22σ(t) = n − 1, that is L22σ(t) is nonsingu-
v̇i (t) = ui (t)  T
lar. Letting Ze (t) = Z2T (t) Z3T (t) · · · ZnT , from (7), it is
where xi (t), vi (t) and ui (t) denote position state, velocity derived that
state and control input (or protocol).
Given the dynamical system (1), it is said that protocol Że (t) = Ãσ(t) Ze (t), (8)
ui (t) asymptotically solves the consensus problem, if the s-
tates of agents satisfy where Ãσ(t) = In−1 ⊗A−L22σ(t) ⊗Bσ(t) . From orthogonal
transformation, the consensus of multi-agent system (4) has
lim |xi (t) − xj (t)| = 0, lim |vi (t) − vj (t)| = 0, ∀i = j, been converted into the stability of switching system (8).
t→+∞ t→+∞
Note that, except zero, L22σ(t) and Lσ(t) have the same
for any initial values xi (0) and vi (0). characteristic roots. Suppose that the characteristic roots of
For multi-agent system (1), a new protocol is used to Lσ(t) are λ1 (Lσ(t) ) = 0, λi (Lσ(t) )(i = 2, · · · , n), and the
achieve consensus characteristic equation of Ãσ (t) is
ui (t) =
   det(In−1 ⊗ A − L22σ(t) ⊗ Bσ(t) )
aij γ1 (t)(xj (t) − xi (t)) + γ2 (t)(vj (t) − vi (t)) , n

j∈N (G(t),i) = λ2 + λi (Lσ(t) )γ2 (t)λ + λi (Lσ(t) )γ1 (t) = 0

i=2
(2)

where aij is the (i, j) entry of the weighted adjacency ma- Therefore, the characteristic roots of Ãσ(t) can be expressed
trix A ∈ R n×n
, N (G(t), i) denotes the neighbor of agent i as
which changes with time, γ1 (t) and γ2 (t) are scaling time- λi1 (Ãσ(t) )
varying parameters to be designed. 
Multi-agent system (1) with protocol (2) is written as −λi (Lσ(t) )γ2 (t) + λ2i (Lσ(t) )γ22 (t) − 4λi (Lσ(t) )γ1 (t)
⎧ = ,
⎪ 2
⎪
⎨ ẋ i (t) = v i (t),

v̇i (t) = j∈N (G(t),i) aij (3)

⎪   λi2 (Ãσ(t) )
⎪
⎩ × γ1 (t)(xj (t) − xi (t)) + γ2 (t)(vj (t) − vi (t)) 
−λi (Lσ(t) )γ2 (t) − λ2i (Lσ(t) )γ22 (t) − 4λi (Lσ(t) )γ1 (t)
For the sake of convenience, denoting ηi (t) = [xi (t) vi (t)]T , = .
T T T T
2
η(t) = [η1 (t) η2 (t) · · · ηn (t)] , system (3) can be written
as the following compact form When γ1 (t), γ2 (t) are constant, and the communication
topology is fixed and directed, multi-agent system (3) has
η̇(t) = (In ⊗ A − Lσ(t) ⊗ Bσ(t) )η(t), (4) the following result.

1717
 Lemma 1.([20]) Second-order multi-agent system (3)
achieves consensus if and only if the communication topol-
ogy contains a spinning tree and
2 sus of multi-agent system (4) is obtained too. Since both
γ22 (Im(λi (L)))
> max  
γ1 2≤i≤n 2 2
Re(λi (L)) (Re(λi (L))) + (Im(λi (L)))
(9) N ) are unstable, and the others are Hurwitz stable. Then,
where Re(λi (L)) and Im(λi (L)) are the real and imaginary
parts of characteristic root λi (L).
When the communication topology is an undirected and
fixed graph, the consensus condition (9) is reduced to
γ1 > 0, γ2 > 0. (10)
In this paper, we assume that the communication topolo-
gy changes with time, and γ1 (t), γ2 (t) also switches with the
variety of network topologies. Therefore, since γ1 (t), γ2 (t)
and L22σ(t) all switch with time, the values of Ãσ(t) consti-
tute a set {Ãi : i ∈ }. For the change of γ1 (t) and γ2 (t),
some values in {Ãi : i ∈ } satisfy condition (10) and the
others do not. In this situation, some subsystems Ãi in set
{Ãi : i ∈ } are stable, and others are unstable. The con-
dition (10) is not suit for judging the consensus of switching
system (4).
For analysis the stability of switching system (8), some
notations are introduced as follows [21–23]. For a given
positive constant Td , let Sd [Td ] denote the set of switching
signals with interval between consecutive discontinuities no
smaller than Td which is called dwell-time. When all subsys-
tem matrices Ãi are Hutwitz stable, one can pick sufficiently
large Td so that system (8) is exponentially stable for every
σ(t) ∈ Sd [Td ]. However, unstable subsystems are inevitable
to encounter in practice. For this reason, ref. [21] introduced
a new concept of ”average dwell time”. For the switching
signal σ(t) and any t ≥ t0 , let Nσ [Ta , N0 ] denote the num-
ber of switchings of σ(t) over time interval [t0 t). For a
given N0 , Ta > 0, let Sa [Ta , N0 ] denote the set of switching
signals satisfying the following condition
t − t0
Nσ (t0 , t) ≤ N0 + , (11)
Ta
where Ta is the “average dwell time” and N0 is called the
“chatter bound”. The introduction of average dwell time
means that there may exist some consecutive switchings sep-
arated by less than Ta , but the average interval between
consecutive switchings is no less than Ta . From (11), it is
easily seen that when N0 = 0, the average dwell time in-
terval between consecutive switchings is at least Ta . It is
shown in [21] that if Ta is lager enough, then the switching
system (8) is exponentially stable for any switching signal
σ(t) ∈ Sa [Ta , N0 ].
A definition about exponentially stability of switching
system (8) is first introduced as follows.
Definition 1. For certain switching signal σ(t), the
switching system (8) is said to be globally exponentially sta-
ble with stability degree μ ≥ 0, if
 Ze (t) ≤ e α−μ(t−t0 )
 Ze (t0 )  
holes for all t ≥ t0 and a known constant α.
1718
3 Mail Resluts
In this section, the stability of switching system (8) is
mainly discussed, and then the condition to achieve consen-
stable and unstable subsystems exist in {Ãi : i ∈ }, it is
assumed that without loss of generality Ã1 , Ã2 , · · · , Ãr (r <
there exist a set of scalar μi > 0 and βi such that

 eÃi t ≤ eβi +μt , 1 ≤ i ≤ r
 eÃi t ≤ eβi −μt , r < i ≤ N,
where scalar μi , βi are computed by using algebraic matrix
theory.
For the piecewise constant switching signal σ(t) and any
t > t0 , let T + (t0 , t)(T − (t0 , t)) denote the total activation
time of unstable subsystems (the Hurwitz stable subsystems)
during time interval [τ, t) and define
μ+ = max μq , μ− = max μq .
1≤q≤r r+1≤q≤N
For any μ ∈ (0, μ− ), choosing a scalar μ∗ ∈ (μ, μ− ), the
following switching law is proposed.
(S1) Determine a switching signal σ(t) such that for any
t > t0 the following inequality holds.
T − (t0 , t) μ+ + μ ∗
+
≥ − . (12)
T (t0 , t) μ − μ∗
For switching system (8) with law (S1), the following re-
sult is introduced.
Lemma 2. Under the switching law (S1), there is a fi-
nite positive constant Ta∗ such that the switching system (8)
is globally exponentially stable with stable degree μ over
Sa [Ta , T0 ] for any average dwell time Ta ≥ Ta∗ and any
chatter bound N0 > 0.
From Lemma 2, a simple corollary is derived.
Corollary 1. When the subsystems in {Ãi : i ∈ } are
all stable, that is to say γ1 (t) and γ2 (t) satisfy the condition
(10) in every switching interval. Then if Ta is sufficiently
large, for switching signal σ(t) ∈ Sa [Ta , N0 ], system (8) is
globally exponentially stable.
When switching system (8) is globally exponentially sta-
ble, then is is concluded that multi-agent system (4) can
achieve consensus.
Theorem 1. Under the switching law (S1), there is a fi-
nite positive constant Ta∗ such that the switching system (4)
achieve consensus globally exponentially with consensus de-
gree μ over Sa [Ta , T0 ] for any average dwell time Ta ≥ Ta∗
and any chatter bound N0 > 0
From the Lemma 2, it is easily obtained the proof of The-
orem 1. Another method to prove Theorem 1 based on
Lyapunov function is presented as follows. For the switch-
ing system (8), since matrices Ã1 , · · · , Ãr are unstable, and
Ãr+1 , · · · , Ãn are Hurwitz stable, there exist a set of posi-
tive scalars μ1 , μ2 , · · · , μN such that Ãi − μi I(i ≤ r) and
Ãi + μi I(i > r) are both Hurwitz stable. Thus, there exist
positive definite matrices P1 , P2 , · · · , PN such that
(Ãi − μi I)T Pi + Pi (Ãi − μi I) < 0, i ≤ r,
(13)
(Ãi + μi I)T Pi + Pi (Ãi + μi I) < 0, i > r
hold. Note that the above inequalities are LMIs with respect
to Pi which can be solved by LMI Contol Toolbox in Matlab.
Using the Pi in (13), a piecewise Lyapunov function candi-
date which is suitable for switching system (8) is defined as

V (t) = ZeT (t)Pσ(t) Ze (t), t ≥ t0 , (14)

where Pσ(t) switches among the solution Pi ’s of Lyapunov

function (14) in accordance with the piecewise constan-
t switching signal σ(t). Then Lyapunov function (14) satisfy
the following properties:
(1) Each V (t) = ZeT (t)Pi Ze (t) in (14) is continuous and
its derivative along the solutions of the corresponding sub-
system satisfies

∂Vi (t) 2μi Vi (t) i ≤ r
V̇i (t) = Ãi Ze (t) ≤ ;
∂Ze (t) −2μi Vi (t) i > r
Fig. 1: Switching communication topology G for (1).
(2) There exist constant scalars α1 , α2 such that

α1  Ze 2 ≤ Vi ≤ α2  Ze 2 , Ze ∈ R2(n−1) , i ∈ ; 4 Numerical Examples

(3) There exists a constant scalar κ ≥ 1 such that
Vi (t) ≤ κVj (t), ∀i, j ∈ .
The first property is a straightforward consequence of (13)
while the second and third properties also hold, for exam-
ple, with α1 = inf i∈ λ(Pi ), α2 = supi∈ λ(Pi ), κ =
supk,l∈ λ(P k)
λ(Pl ) , where λ(P ), λ(P ) denote the largest and
smallest eigenvalues of the positive definite matrix P .
Similar to the proof of Lemma 2, let t1 < t2 < · · · < ti
denote the switching points of σ(t) over the interval (t0 , t],
then the Lyapunov function candidate (14) satisfies
 +
e2μ (t−ti ) V (ti ), if i ≤ r
V (t) ≤ −
e−2μ (t−ti ) V (ti ), if i > r.
Noting that V (tj ) ≤ μV (t− j ) holds for all the switching
point tj ’s according to (15), where t−j = limt↑tj t, from the
induction, it is derived that
+
T + (t0 ,t)−2μ− T − (t0 ,t)
V (t) ≤ κNσ (t0 ,t) e2μ
In this section, we use some examples to illustrate the ef-
fectiveness of the results in the paper.
(15) Example 1. Consider six agents with four types of com-
munication topology graph as described in Fig. 1 where the
arrows denote switching sequence.
For each communication topology, different scalars are
chosen in different switching interval. We choose scalars
γ1 = 1 and γ2 = 2 for GI and GIII , choose the scalars
γ1 = −1 and γ2 = 2 for GII , choose the scalars γ1 = 2
and γ2 = −1 for GIV . It is obviously seen that the scalars
in GII and GIV don’t satisfy condition. For simplicity, it is
assumed that all the edges have 0-1 weights. When γ1 = 1,
γ2 = 2, Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 show the convergence trajectories
of velocity states of multi-agent system (3) under commu-
nication graph GI , GIII respectively. Similarly, Fig. 3 and
Fig. 5 describe the convergence trajectories of velocity states
of multi-agent system (3) with γ1 = −1, γ2 = 2 under graph
GII and γ1 = 2, γ2 = −1 under graph GIV , respectively. It
is obvious the curves in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 converge gradually,
but the curves in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 diverge.
V (t0 ),

and

α2 μ+ T + (t0 ,t)−μ− T − (t0 ,t)+ ln κ Nσ (t0 ,t)
 Ze (t)  ≤ e 2
α1
 Ze (t0 )  .

The remaining discussion is almost the same as in Lemma

2, if β is replaced by ln2κ . Therefore, it concluded that (14)
with (12) is a piecewise Lyapunov function for the switch-
ing system (8) when adopting the switching law (S1) with Fig. 2: The velocity trajectories of multi-agent system (3)
the average dwell time sufficiently large. If switching sys- with γ1 = 1, γ2 = 2 under topology graph GI .
tem (8) is is globally exponentially stable with stable degree
μ over Sa [Ta , T0 ], multi-agent system (3) is globally expo-
nentially consensus for any average dwell time Ta ≥ Ta∗ and For multi-agent system (3) under switching topology Fig.
any chatter bound N0 > 0. 1, suppose that the Laplacian matrices of GI , GII , GIII ,

1719
 μ− = 0.5, from (13) PI , PII , PIII , PIV are calculat-
ed by
Matlab.
 Then
the following
results
 are obtained
λ(PI ) λ(PII ) λ(PIII ) IV )
log λ(PI ) , log λ(PII ) , log λ(PIII ) , log λ(P λ(PIV ) .
Choosing μ = 0.1, μ∗ = 0.2, we have

T − (t0 , t) μ+ + μ∗
+
≥ − = 30,
T (t0 , t) μ − μ∗

β = 0.1. The average dwell time is calculated as

Fig. 3: The velocity trajectories of multi-agent system
(3)with γ1 = −1, γ2 = 2 under topology graph GII .
0.1
Ta∗ = = 1.
μ∗−μ
The Figs. 6, 7 describe the velocity and position trajectories
of multi-agent system (3) with switching topology Fig. 1
under the switching law (S1) with average dwell time Ta∗ =
1 where ‘*’ denotes the switching points. From the figures,
it is concluded that the multi-agent system (3) can achieve
consensus under switching topology by using the switching
law (S1) with average dwell time.

Fig. 4: The velocity trajectories of multi-agent system (3)

with γ1 = 1, γ2 = 2 under topology graph GIII .

Fig. 6: The velocity trajectories of multi-agent system (3)

under the switching law (S1).

Fig. 5: The velocity trajectories of multi-agent system (3)

with γ1 = 2, γ2 = −1 under topology graph GIV .

and GIV are LI , LII , LIII , and LIV , respectively. Then

the characteristic roots of ÃI , ÃII , ÃIII , and ÃIV are
λ(ÃI ) = {−11.4772, −8.7056, −8.7056, −4.1963,
−4.1963, −0.5228, −0.5676, −0.5676, −0.5305, −0.5305},
λ(ÃII ) = {−9.0795, −7.7056, −4.4495, −3.1963, −1.7850,
0.3906, 0.4324, 0.4495, 0.4739, 0.4695},
λ(ÃIII ) = {−8.9345, −6.2852, −1.8508, −0.5858 +
0.4926j, −0.5858 − 0.4926j, −0.6851, −0.5296, −0.5432,
− 3.4142, −0.5858},
λ(ÃIV ) = {2.6180 + 1.9021j, 2.6180 + 1.9021j, 2.6180 −
1.9021j, 1.5000 + 1.9365j, 1.5000 − 1.9365j, 1.0000 +
1.7321j, 1.0000 + 1.7321j, 0.3820 + 1.1756j, 10.3820 −
1.1756j, 0.5000 + 1.3229j, 0.5000 − 1.3229j}. Let μ+ = 9,
Fig. 7: The position trajectories of multi-agent system (3)
under the switching law (S1).
5 Conclusion
In this paper, consensus analysis of second-order multi-
agent under undirected switching communication graphs has
been investigated. The concept of average dwell time and
a switching law have been introduced. Through orthogo-
nal transformation, the consensus of multi-agent system has
been convert to stability of corresponding switching system.

1720
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