Distributed output feedback leader-following consensus for nonlinear multiagent systems with time delay

This paper concentrates on the output feedback control problem for a class of nonlinear multiagent systems governed by the high-order strict-feedback model with time delay. Within the dynamic gain technique and the Lyapunov-like method, the dynamic gain state observer for each agent is put forward with the hope to compensate the impact induced by the immeasurable state variables, and then the distributed leader-following consensus protocols which are independent of the time delay on the agent state are designed such that the output of each follower can asymptotically track that of the leader. Besides, the problem considered is extended into the general case where the Lipschitz growth rates of the nonlinear function are unknown time-varying functions. Finally, simulation examples are performed to illustrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.