A Distributed Consensus Controller With Indirect State Interaction for Multi-Agent Systems in the Port-Hamiltonian Framework

Authors

Jingyi Zhao, Yongxin Wu, Weijun Zhou, Yuhu Wu

Abstract

This paper investigates the consensus problem in a class of multi-agent systems with port-Hamiltonian dynamics, where agents update their states through information exchange with their neighbours to achieve consensus. However, the communication process poses a risk of leaking an agent’s exact state to other agents or external eavesdroppers, resulting in a potential privacy breach. To address this issue, we propose a distributed consensus controller designed with privacy protection. With the proposed controller, the interaction among multiple agents only depends on their own estimation to the average output of the whole, thus avoiding explicit state sharing. Additionally, the multi-agent systems maintain the passive characteristic, making the Hamiltonian function a natural choice as the Lyapunov function candidate. Furthermore, we prove that the multi-agent systems converge exponentially to the equilibrium where the outputs of the multi-agent systems achieve consensus, and provide the corresponding convergence rate. Finally, a simulation example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Citation

• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks
• Year: 2026
• Volume: 12
• Issue:
• Pages: 440–451
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• DOI: 10.1109/tsipn.2026.3676246

BibTeX

@article{Zhao_2026,
  title={{A Distributed Consensus Controller With Indirect State Interaction for Multi-Agent Systems in the Port-Hamiltonian Framework}},
  volume={12},
  ISSN={2373-7778},
  DOI={10.1109/tsipn.2026.3676246},
  journal={IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Networks},
  publisher={Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)},
  author={Zhao, Jingyi and Wu, Yongxin and Zhou, Weijun and Wu, Yuhu},
  year={2026},
  pages={440--451}
}

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