Weighted Group Consensus of Heterogeneous MASs Without Spanning Trees: A Complex Frequency‐Domain Approach Under Time Delays and Packet Loss

This study examines the weighted group consensus problem in discrete‐time HMASs with cooperative–competitive networks under the influence of packet loss and time delays. A novel control protocol has been devised for this system, taking into account packet loss, cooperative–competitive relations, and time delays. By using graph theory, stability theory, Z‐transformation, Nyquist criterion, and Gershgorin disk, some sufficient conditions have been established to guarantee the weighted group consensus of this type of HMASs. Based on these gained results and accounting for the weighted parameters, the upper bound of time delay can be calculated. Furthermore, the topology of HMASs is no longer needed to be strongly connective or contain a spanning tree. Finally, simulation experiments are carried out to illustrate the validity of the results that have been obtained.