English

The Most Exigent Eigenvalue: Guaranteeing Consensus under an Unknown Communication Topology and Time Delays

Optimization and Control 2023-04-17 v2 Dynamical Systems

Abstract

In the analysis of consensus problems for multi-agent systems affected by time delays, the delay margin for a given protocol is heavily dependent on the communication topology being used. This document aims to answer the question of what is the largest delay value under which convergence to consensus is still possible even if the communication topology is not known. To answer this question we revisit the concept of most exigent eigenvalue, applying it to two different consensus protocols for agents driven by second order dynamics. We show how the delay margin depends on the structure of the consensus protocol and the communication topology, and arrive to a boundary that guarantees consensus for any connected communication topology. The switching topologies case is also studied and It is shown that for one protocol the stability of the individual topologies is sufficient to guarantee consensus in the switching case, whereas for the other one it is not.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1508.06851,
  title  = {The Most Exigent Eigenvalue: Guaranteeing Consensus under an Unknown Communication Topology and Time Delays},
  author = {Rudy Cepeda-Gomez and Torsten Jeinsch and Wolfgang Drewelow},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.06851},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in the European Journal of Control

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:42:51.908Z