This study investigates the output consensus problem for a class of non‐linear networked multi‐agent systems with switching topology and time‐varying delays. To synchronise the outputs of the agents, novel distributed data‐driven consensus protocols are proposed, where the reference input is designed to be the time‐varying average of the agents' output. To avoid the self‐tracking phenomenon, the delayed information is introduced in the protocol. The proposed methods merely depend on the input and output data of the neighbouring agents, without using explicit or implicit information of its mathematical model. Sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the closed‐loop stability and consensus, with the convergence rate obtained. Numerical and practical examples are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocols.

This article investigates the dynamic consensus problem for the discrete-time second-order integrator networked multiagent system with time-varying delay and switching topology, in which the speed of each agent is not required to be synchronized to zero value. Novel consensus protocols using only relative state information are proposed, and sufficient conditions for dynamic consensus are derived. The results show that consensus can be reached for both the case with delay and the case without delay, if the gain is sufficiently small and the union of interaction graphs is scrambling or contains a spanning tree frequently enough as the system evolves. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

Networked cascade control systems (NCCS) are susceptible to performance degradation from network-induced delays, communication constraints, and component failures. To address these interconnected challenges, this paper develops an integrated fault-tolerant H-infinity control framework for discrete-time nonlinear NCCS. A key contribution is a novel, disturbance-aware adaptive event-triggered mechanism (AETM) that uniquely incorporates measurable external disturbances into its triggering logic. This design dynamically reduces communication frequency while preserving performance. Furthermore, a unified co-design of the controller parameters and the AETM’s weighting matrix is established, while stability is rigorously substantiated through theoretical analysis. Simulation results for a boiler control system validate the proposed method’s effectiveness, demonstrating significant improvements in both system robustness and communication efficiency.