In this paper, the consensus problem for second-order multi-agent systems using impulsive control with sampled hetero-information is investigated. Necessary and sufficient conditions for sampling interval to achieve consensus for the second-order multi-agent systems are obtained. Analysis for the upper bound of sampling interval, convergence performance, and communication cost of the proposed control protocols are also discussed. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control protocols. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.