Output Synchronization of Multi-Agent Systems with Time-Delay and Unknown Leader Dynamics

This paper studies the output synchronization problem for linear heterogeneous discrete-time multi-agent systems in a leader-following architecture. The major technical challenges lie in the mix of input time-delays and unknown leader dynamics. To handle unknown leader dynamics, an observer is required for each follower to estimate both a leader’s state and its system dynamics. It results in an adaptive distributed observer-based approach subject to input-delays.