Maximum Hands-off Distributed Control for Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems with Sampled-data State Observation

In this paper, we propose a distributed control algorithm for the consensus of multiagent systems with first- and second-order dynamics via sampled-data state observation. Our consensus scheme is based on the maximum hands-off control. It is a control that maximizes the time duration on which the control is exactly zero among the feasible controls. Such a control can stop actuators for a long time duration and reduce fuel or electricity consumption. We give theorems that guarantee the feasibility of the proposed consensus scheme and characterize the proposed distributed control in a closed form. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control by simulation.