Finite-time median-related group consensus over directed networks

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate a novel finite-time median-related group consensus problem, where the finial consensus value can be identified as a desired function of the median of initial states instead of the much studied average value. The underlying communication topology is modelled by a weighted dynamical directed network. A distributed control protocol is firstly introduced to ensure that the agents can reach a median-related consensus in finite time in a collaboration network, meaning that all edge-weights of the communication network are non-negative. We then generalise the results to cooperation–competition networks, where the communication network is divided into predetermined collaboration subnetworks allowing possibly negative weights. Effective group control protocols are designed to guarantee the median-related group consensus in finite time. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the availability of our theoretical results.

KEYWORDS:

• Finite-time consensus
• multi-agent systems
• median-related consensus
• collaboration networks
• cooperation–competition networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Yamei Ye  http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7445-9645

Yilun Shang  http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2817-3400

Additional information

Funding

The work is supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 11505127].