Consensus of first-order discrete-time multi-agent systems with time delays

Abstract This paper mainly considers the consensus for first-order discrete-time multi-agent systems w.r.t. two key parameters, the step size T and the delay τ . First, the consensus is recast into the concurrent stability for a series of trinomials. Then, for each associated trinomial, we derive a necessary and sufficient stability condition, based on proving the two invariance properties for the asymptotic behavior of the critical unitary roots. As a result, the exhaustive consensus region in the T − τ parameter space (i.e., the parameter set such that the multi-agent system reaches a consensus iff T and τ belong to that set) is determined. Furthermore, we show that the obtained result also applies to systems with diverse input delays, through an extra sufficient consensus condition. Finally, two illustrative examples are presented.