  In this brief paper, a new consensus protocol based on the sign of
innovations is proposed. Based on this protocol each agent only requires
single-bit of information about its relative state to its neighboring agents.
This is significant in real-time applications, since it requires less
computation and/or communication load on agents. Using Lyapunov stability
theorem the convergence is proved for networks having a spanning tree. Further,
the convergence is shown to be in finite-time, which is significant as compared
to most asymptotic protocols in the literature. Time-variant network topologies
are also considered in this paper, and final consensus value is derived for
undirected networks. Applications of the proposed consensus protocol in (i)
2D/3D rendezvous task, (ii) distributed estimation, (iii) distributed
optimization, and (iv) formation control are considered and significance of
applying this protocol is discussed. Numerical simulations are provided to
compare the protocol with the existing protocols in the literature.
