Decentralized consensus for linear multi-agent systems under general directed graphs based on event-triggered/self-triggered strategy

In this paper, we study the event-triggered consensus problem for multi-agent systems with general linear dynamics under a general directed graph. We propose a decentralized event-triggered consensus controller (ETCC) for each agent to achieve consensus, without requiring continuous communication among agents. Each agent only needs to monitor its own state continuously to determine when to trigger an event and broadcast its state to its out-neighbors. The agent updates its controller when it broadcasts its state to its out-neighbors or receives new information from its in-neighbors. The ETCC can be implemented in multiple steps. We prove that under the proposed ETCC there is no Zeno behavior exhibited. To relax the requirement of continuous monitoring of each agent's own state, we further propose a self-triggered consensus controller (STCC). Simulation results are given to illustrate the theoretical analysis and show the advantages of the event-triggered and self-triggered controllers in this paper.