Output consensus for multiple non-holonomic systems under directed communication topology

In this paper, the problem of output consensus for multiple non-holonomic systems in chained form has been investigated. First, an output consensus controller under the strongly connected communication topology is devised by two steps, where a time-varying control strategy and the backstepping design technique are employed. Then, the results are extended to the general directed topology case via graph decomposition, in which the input-to-state stability theory plays a critical role. We prove that the proposed controller can achieve the semi-global output consensus among multiple non-holonomic systems, provided that the interaction graph contains a spanning tree. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed controller.