Output formation-containment analysis and design for general linear time-invariant multi-agent systems

Output formation-containment control problems for general linear time-invariant multi-agent systems with directed topologies are dealt with. Output formation-containment means that the outputs of leaders achieve the predefined formation, and at the same time the outputs of followers converge to the convex hull formed by the outputs of leaders. Firstly, static output protocols are presented for leaders and followers respectively. Then output formation-containment problems of multi-agent systems are transformed into asymptotic stability problems. Sufficient conditions with less computation complexity are proposed for multi-agent systems to achieve the output formation-containment. An explicit expression for the time-varying output formation reference function is derived to describe the macroscopic movement of the whole output formation-containment. Explicit expressions to describe the relationship among the outputs of followers, the time-varying output formation for the leaders and the output formation reference are derived. It is proven that the outputs of followers not only converge to the convex hull formed by those of leaders but also achieve certain time-varying formation specified by the convex combination of the desired output formation for the leaders. Moreover, an approach to determine the gain matrices in the protocols is given for multi-agent systems to achieve the output formation-containment. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.