Consensus of Euler-Lagrange systems networked by sampled-data information with probabilistic time delays

This paper investigates the consensus problem of multiple Euler-Lagrange systems under directed topology. Unlike the common assumptions on continuous-time information exchanges, a more realistic sampled-data communication strategy is proposed with probabilistic occurrence of time-varying delays. Both of the sampling period and the delays are assumed to be time-varying, which is more general in some practical situations. In addition, the relative coordinate derivative information is not required in the distributed controllers such that the communication network burden can be further reduced. In particular, a distinct feature of the proposed scheme lies in the fact that it can effectively reduce the energy consumption. By employing the stochastic analysis techniques, sufficient conditions are established to guarantee that the consensus can be achieved. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the applicability and benefits of the theoretical results.