Pinning Consensus in Networks of Multiagents via a Single Impulsive Controller

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss pinning consensus in networks of multiagents via impulsive controllers. In particular, we consider the case of using only one impulsive controller. We provide a sufficient condition to pin the network to a prescribed value. It is rigorously proven that in case the underlying graph of the network has spanning trees, the network can reach consensus on the prescribed value when the impulsive controller is imposed on the root with appropriate impulsive strength and impulse intervals. Interestingly, we find that the permissible range of the impulsive strength completely depends on the left eigenvector of the graph Laplacian corresponding to the zero eigenvalue and the pinning node we choose. The impulses can be very sparse, with the impulsive intervals being lower bounded. Examples with numerical simulations are also provided to illustrate the theoretical results.