Distributed min-projection control: A switching consensus protocol for switched affine multi-agent systems

In this study, a distributed control problem is addressed for switched affine multi-agent systems. In dynamical systems with an affine control input, the use of error feedback is essential for the realization of consensus protocols, but different from most existing results with affine control multi-agent systems, switched affine multi-agent systems face additional difficulties in the analysis and control; meanwhile, affine diffusive coupling consensus algorithms are not applicable. For this reason, a switching signal is considered as a control mechanism. We study switched networks in which the leader’s state is accessible only for a portion of agents, and the Lyapunov matrix-based min-projection control strategy is proposed to determine the active mode for each agent based on the state information of the neighbors. Using parameter-dependent stability analysis, a range of different reference points can be tracked by distributed min-projection switching without any redesigning. Also, benefiting from the hybrid dynamical system, min-projection switch is modified such that a periodic time-triggered sampled control is introduced to obtain finite switching frequency. Finally, a multi-motor system fed by DC–DC buck–boost converters is simulated for a stepwise changing of leader signal and different dwell-time switching, and the effectiveness of proposed method is assessed.