Disc margins of the discrete-time LQR and its application to consensus problem

This article presents a complex gain margin of discrete-time linear quadratic regulator (DLQR) and its application to a consensus problem of multi-agent higher order linear systems. Since the consensus problem can be converted into a robust control problem with perturbation expressed by complex numbers, and since the classical gain and phase margins are not enough to handle the current case, we study the so-called ‘disc margin’ which is somehow a combination of gain and phase margins. We first compute the disc margin of DLQR controller based on a Lyapunov argument, which is simple but yields a relaxed result over those previously reported in the literature. Then, it is shown that the disc margin can be enlarged arbitrarily when the system is asymptotically null controllable with bounded controls and when a low-gain feedback is employed. Based on this fact, the discrete-time consensus problem is solved by a DLQR-based consensus controller. Simulation study shows that the DLQR-based consensus controller has better robustness property against model uncertainties in the input channel.