Yu, J.-T.J.-T.YuLI-CHEN FU2018-09-102018-09-10201414746670https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84929732204&doi=10.3182%2f20140824-6-za-1003.01884&partnerID=40&md5=4a7e426cad6b9078eb7e0f53bed17617http://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/387306This paper studies the multi-agent consensus problem of complex networks consisting of general homogeneous continuous linear time-invariant systems with controls under a time-invariant directional communication topology. A new approach based on relative-input-output is proposed to solve the problem. In contrast to a popular method where each agent is equipped with an observer, and hence involving heavy observer dynamics, the proposed approach is static and utilizes relative-input and relative-output eliminating the observers aforementioned, therefore is practically much simpler and easier to implement significantly reducing computational and communicational burdens and costs. Extension of the framework is then made to tackle a dual problem: consensus of distributed filtering without controls. Two numerical examples are provided to validate the proposed approach. © IFAC.Automation; Complex networks; Continuous time systems; Invariance; Linear control systems; Linear systems; Problem solving; Time varying control systems; Consensus problems; Directional communications; Distributed filtering; Input-output; Input-output approach; Linear time invariant systems; New approaches; Time invariants; Multi agent systemsconference paper10.3182/20140824-6-za-1003.018842-s2.0-84929732204