Distributed fault detection for a class of second‐order multi‐agent systems: an optimal robust observer approach

In this study, the distributed fault detection and isolation problem for a class of second‐order discrete‐time multi‐agent systems (MASs) is studied by using an optimal robust observer approach. The work is based on an MAS with a mean square bounded consensus protocol. The authors prove that for this kind of system, a bank of optimal robust observers can be constructed for a certain agent to detect and isolate the possible faults of its neighbour agents. The main result of this study is to bring forward an existence condition for these observers, which is closely related to the topology structure of the MAS. For the detection of the faults injected in position states, they show that only the position information of the MAS is needed, but for the case of detecting faults in velocity states, both position and velocity measurements are needed. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the results proposed in this study.