Distributed consensus of nonlinear stochastic multi-agent systems with input and output delays via predictive control

The article investigates the consensus of nonlinear stochastic multi-agent systems with input and output delay using a distributed predictive controller. First, an error is defined for the design of dynamic reference information, which can be used to estimate the leader-following consensus error. Second, a prediction scheme is employed to eliminate the effect of time delays, and a distributed predictive controller is established by utilizing dynamic reference and prediction information. Then, the consensus error is considered through a new closed-loop system, and it is proved that the distributed predictive control method can achieve leader-following consensus on a nonlinear stochastic multi-agent system with input and output delays. Finally, the single-link robotic arms model is utilized to validate the effectiveness of the distributed predictive control.