Consensus of Linear MIMO Multiagent Systems: Appointed-Time Reduced-Order Observer-Based Protocols

This article is devoted to designing distributed adaptive attack-free protocols for the consensus of linear multi-input multioutput multiagent systems under directed graphs, where the appointed-time reduced-order observers are proposed based only upon the relative output information among neighboring agents. One of the distinguishing features of the attack-free protocols lies in the prohibition on information transmission via the communication channel. By viewing the relative control input as the unknown input on the dynamics of each agent, a class of new unknown input observers is introduced with only the relative output measurement involved. The appointed-time estimation of the consensus error is achieved by utilizing jump discontinuity in the observer design and employing the property of the nilpotent matrix. Moreover, a linear transformation is made on the system of consensus error to realize the observer order reduction. Both theoretical analysis and simulation illustration are presented to reveal the effectiveness of the proposed attack-free protocols.