Group consensus via pinning control for a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems with input constraints

This paper studies group consensus for a class of heterogeneous multi-agent systems (HMASs), where the dynamics of agents are described by single and double integrators. First, under the case that all the agents’ control inputs are bounded and the second-order agents’ velocity information cannot be obtained, we design controllers with a grouping and pinning scheme by introducing an auxiliary function. With the help of Lyapunov theory, it is proved that an HMAS with some pinning agents can achieve group consensus asymptotically under an undirected connected topology and the final states of all agents can converge to the desired consensus values. Furthermore, we investigate group consensus for an HMAS under multiple communication constraints, where the dynamics of the second-order agents are represented by linear and Euler–Lagrange (EL) nonlinear dynamics. Two control protocols and group consensus criteria are also provided to guarantee that the HMAS with or without uncertain parameters can reach group consensus. Finally, two simulation examples illustrate the obtained results.