Event-Triggered Protocol for the Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems With State-Dependent Nonlinear Coupling

This paper proposes an event-triggered protocol to achieve consensus in multi-agent system, in which neighboring agents are coupled via a nonlinear function with local passivity. It is mathematically proved that the proposed protocol guarantees average consensus in the system, excluding the existence of Zeno phenomenon. As a practical application, the scheme is applied to achieve synchronization in the Kuramoto oscillator network. Phase agreement is obtained for oscillators with identical natural frequency. For oscillators with non-identical natural frequencies, their phases are confined in a bounded range and their frequencies reach an average of their natural frequencies. To further demonstrate the generality of the scheme, another multi-agent system with coupling based on exponential and tangent functions is also presented. All the simulation results verify the condition of consensus and confirm the effectiveness of the scheme.