Distributed adaptive output feedback tracking control for a class of uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper addresses the distributed output feedback tracking control problem for multi-agent systems with higher order nonlinear non-strict-feedback dynamics and directed communication graphs. The existing works usually design a distributed consensus controller using all the states of each agent, which are often immeasurable, especially in nonlinear systems. In this paper, based only on the relative output between itself and its neighbours, a distributed adaptive consensus control law is proposed for each agent using the backstepping technique and approximation technique of Fourier series (FS) to solve the output feedback tracking control problem of multi-agent systems. The FS structure is taken not only for tracking the unknown nonlinear dynamics but also the unknown derivatives of virtual controllers in the controller design procedure, which can therefore prevent virtual controllers from containing uncertain terms. The projection algorithm is applied to ensure that the estimated parameters remain in some known bounded sets. Lyapunov stability analysis shows that the proposed control law can guarantee that the output of each agent synchronises to the leader with bounded residual errors and that all the signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulation results have verified the performance and feasibility of the proposed distributed adaptive control strategy.     

Cooperative Adaptive Fuzzy Output Feedback Control for Synchronization of Nonlinear Multi‐Agent Systems in the Presence of Input Saturation

This paper considers the leader‐following synchronization problem of nonlinear multi‐agent systems with unmeasurable states in the presence of input saturation. Each follower is governed by a class of strict‐feedback systems with unknown nonlinearities and the information of the leader can be accessed by only a small fraction of followers. An auxiliary system is introduced and its states are used to design the cooperative controllers for counteracting the effect of input saturation. By using fuzzy logic systems to approximate the unknown nonlinearities, local adaptive fuzzy observers are designed to estimate the unmeasurable states. Dynamic surface control (DSC) is employed to design distributed adaptive fuzzy output feedback controllers. The developed controllers guarantee that the outputs of all followers synchronize to that of the leader under directed communication graphs. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, it is proved that all signals in the closed‐loop systems are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB), and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. An example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.     

A low‐complexity design for distributed containment control of networked pure‐feedback systems and its application to fault‐tolerant control

This paper addresses a low‐complexity distributed containment control problem and its extension to fault‐tolerant control for networked nonlinear pure‐feedback systems under a directed graph. The multiple dynamic leaders are neighbors of only a subset of the followers described by completely non‐affine multi‐input multi‐output pure‐feedback dynamics. It is assumed that all followers' nonlinearities are heterogeneous and unknown. The proposed containment controller is implemented by using only error surfaces integrated by performance bounding functions and does not require any differential equations for compensating uncertainties and faults. Thus, compared with the previous containment control approaches for multi‐agent systems with unknown non‐affine nonlinearities, the distributed containment control structure is simplified. In addition, it is shown that the proposed control scheme can be applied to the fault‐tolerant containment control problem in the presence of unexpected system and actuator faults, without reconstructing any control structure. It is shown from Lyapunov stability theorem that all followers nearly converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders and the containment control errors are preserved within certain given predefined bounds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive consensus tracking for linear multi‐agent systems with heterogeneous unknown nonlinear dynamics

This paper considers the consensus tracking control problem for general linear multi‐agent systems with unknown dynamics in both the leader and all followers. Based on parameterizations of the unknown dynamics of all agents, two decentralized adaptive consensus tracking protocols, respectively, with dynamic and static coupling gains, are proposed to guarantee that the states of all followers converge to the state of the leader. Furthermore, this result is extended to the robust adaptive consensus tracking problem in which there exist parameter uncertainties and Lipschitz‐type disturbances in the network. It is also shown that the parameter estimation errors converge to zero based on contradiction method and Lyapunov function approach. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive tracking control of leader–follower systems with unknown dynamics and partial measurements

In this paper, a decentralized adaptive tracking control is developed for a second-order leader–follower system with unknown dynamics and relative position measurements. Linearly parameterized models are used to describe the unknown dynamics of a self-active leader and all followers. A new distributed system is obtained by using the relative position and velocity measurements as the state variables. By only using the relative position measurements, a dynamic output–feedback tracking control together with decentralized adaptive laws is designed for each follower. At the same time, the stability of the tracking error system and the parameter convergence are analyzed with the help of a common Lyapunov function method. Some simulation results are presented to validate the proposed adaptive tracking control.     

Adaptive finite-time consensus in multi-agent networks

This paper is concerned with the finite-time consensus problem of distributed agents having non-identical unknown nonlinear dynamics, to a leader agent that also has unknown nonlinear control input signal. By parameterization of unknown nonlinear dynamics, a Lyapunov technique in conjunction with homogeneity technique is presented for designing a decentralized adaptive finite-time consensus control protocol in undirected networks. Homogeneous Lyapunov functions and homogeneous vector fields are introduced in the stability analysis although the whole system is not homogeneous. Theoretical analysis shows that leader-following consensus can be achieved in finite-time, meanwhile, finite-time parameter convergence can be also guaranteed under the proposed control scheme. An example is given to validate the theoretical results.     

Containment control of linear multi‐agent systems with multiple leaders of bounded inputs using distributed continuous controllers

This paper considers the containment control problem for multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics and multiple leaders whose control inputs are possibly nonzero and time varying. Based on the relative states of neighboring agents, a distributed static continuous controller is designed, under which the containment error is uniformly ultimately bounded and the upper bound of the containment error can be made arbitrarily small, if the subgraph associated with the followers is undirected and, for each follower, there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to that follower. It is noted that the design of the static controller requires the knowledge of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix and the upper bounds of the leaders’ control inputs. In order to remove these requirements, a distributed adaptive continuous controller is further proposed, which can be designed and implemented by each follower in a fully distributed fashion. Extensions to the case where only local output information is available and to the case of multi‐agent systems with matching uncertainties are also discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leader-following consensus for a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper deals with the leader-following consensus problem for a class of multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics and directed communication topology. The control input of the leader agent is assumed to be unknown to all follower agents. A distributed adaptive nonlinear control law is constructed using the relative state information between neighboring agents, which achieves leader-following consensus for any directed communication graph that contains a spanning tree with the root node being the leader agent. Compared with previous results, the nonlinear functions are not required to satisfy the globally Lipschitz or Lipschitz-like condition and the adaptive consensus protocol is in a distributed fashion. A numerical example is given to verify our proposed protocol.     

Fully distributed consensus for fuzzy multiagent systems with jointly connected topology

This paper investigates the problem of fully distributed consensus for polynomial fuzzy multiagent systems (MASs) under jointly connected topologies. First, a polynomial fuzzy modeling method is presented to characterize the error dynamics that is constructed by one leader and multiple followers. Then, using the relative state information and the agents' dynamics, a distributed adaptive protocol is designed to guarantee that MASs under jointly connected topologies can achieve consensus in a fully distributed fashion. Utilizing the Lyapunov technique, a relaxed sufficient criterion is proposed to ensure consensus for fuzzy MASs under jointly connected topologies. Moreover, the adaptive coupling weights between neighboring agents can converge to certain values. The derived condition is transformed into a sum-of-squares form, which can be solved numerically. We provide an example to illustrate the proposed distributed adaptive consensus technique's validity.     

Containment control of a class of heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper studies the containment control of a class of heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems under general directed graph. Every follower agent is a nonlinear system in the output feedback form with the same relative degree. The authors’ goal is to design a distributed dynamic controller such that the outputs of followers enter the convex hull spanned by the outputs of leaders. To this end, the containment problem is converted into a cooperative output regulation problem, a distributed adaptive recursive procedure and the internal model are employed to design the distributed controller.     

Distributed adaptive containment control of networked flexible-joint robots using neural networks

This study presents a distributed adaptive containment control approach for a group of uncertain flexible-joint (FJ) robots with multiple dynamic leaders under a directed communication graph. The leaders are neighbors of only a subset of the followers. The derivatives of the leaders are unknown, namely, the position information of the leaders is only available for implementing the proposed control approach. The local adaptive dynamic surface containment controller for each follower is designed using only neighbors’ information to guarantee that all followers converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders. The function approximation technique using neural networks is employed to estimate the model uncertainties of each follower. It is proved that the containment control errors converge to an adjustable neighborhood of the origin regardless of model uncertainties and the lack of shared communication information. Simulation results for FJ manipulators are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive containment control scheme.     

带有输出约束条件的随机多智能体系统容错控制

在有向通讯拓扑图下,针对一类具有输出约束和执行器偏差增益故障的非严格反馈随机多智能体系统,提出一种自适应神经网络容错控制设计方案.采用神经网络逼近未知非线性函数,构造障碍李雅普诺夫函数处理系统的输出约束问题,以反步法和动态面技术为框架,结合Nussbaum函数设计自适应神经网络容错控制方法.基于李雅普诺夫稳定性理论,证明所有跟随者输出与领导者输出达到一致,闭环系统的所有信号依概率半全局一致最终有界且系统输出限制在给定紧集内.论文最后通过仿真实验验证所给出控制方案的有效性.     

Rendezvous with connectivity preservation for multi-robot systems with an unknown leader

This paper studies the leader-following rendezvous problem with connectivity preservation for multi-agent systems composed of uncertain multi-robot systems subject to external disturbances and an unknown leader, both of which are generated by a so-called exosystem with parametric uncertainty. By combining internal model design, potential function technique and adaptive control, two distributed control strategies are proposed to maintain the connectivity of the communication network, to achieve the asymptotic tracking of all the followers to the output of the unknown leader system, as well as to reject unknown external disturbances. It is also worth to mention that the uncertain parameters in the multi-robot systems and exosystem are further allowed to belong to unknown and unbounded sets when applying the second fully distributed control law containing a dynamic gain inspired by high-gain adaptive control or self-tuning regulator.     

Prescribed performance global stable adaptive neural dynamic surface consensus tracking control of stochastic multi-agent systems with hysteresis inputs and nonlinear dynamics

This paper focuses on the leader-following consensus control problem of stochastic multi-agent systems with hysteresis inputs and nonlinear dynamics. A leader-following consensus scheme is presented for stochastic multi-agent systems directions under directed graphs, which can achieve predefined synchronisation error bounds. By mainly activating an auxiliary robust control component for pulling back the transient escaped from the neural active region, a multi-switching robust neuro adaptive controller in the neural approximation domain, which can achieve globally uniformly ultimately bounded tracking stability of multi-agent systems recently. A specific Nussbaum-type function is introduced to solve the problem of unknown control directions. Using a dynamic surface control technique, distributed consensus controllers are developed to guarantee that the outputs of all followers synchronise with that of the leader with prescribed performance. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, it is proved that all signals in closed-loop systems are uniformly ultimately bounded and all the follower agents can keep consensus with the leader. Two simulation examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed control scheme.     

异构集群系统分布式自适应输出时变编队跟踪控制

提出了一种能够解决高阶异构集群系统输出时变编队跟踪问题的控制方法. 集群系统中的智能体分为领导者和跟随者, 领导者和跟随者的动力学模型可以完全不同. 跟随者的输出在跟踪领导者输出的同时保持时变编队实现协同运动. 考虑了领导者存在已知或未知控制输入、领导者和跟随者均存在未知扰动、有向通信拓扑存在切换等多种因素并存的情况, 结合观测器理论、自适应控制理论和滑模控制理论设计了完全分布式的输出时变编队跟踪控制协议, 摆脱了对领导者控制输入上界值、与通信拓扑相关的拉普拉斯矩阵的特征值以及时变编队函数等全局信息的依赖. 利用Lyapunov理论证明了在有向拓扑切换条件下异构集群系统的闭环稳定性. 最后通过数值仿真对理论结果的有效性进行了验证.     

Distributed adaptive fuzzy iterative learning control of coordination problems for higher order multi-agent systems

In this paper, the adaptive fuzzy iterative learning control scheme is proposed for coordination problems of Mth order (M ≥ 2) distributed multi-agent systems. Every follower agent has a higher order integrator with unknown nonlinear dynamics and input disturbance. The dynamics of the leader are a higher order nonlinear systems and only available to a portion of the follower agents. With distributed initial state learning, the unified distributed protocols combined time-domain and iteration-domain adaptive laws guarantee that the follower agents track the leader uniformly on [0, T]. Then, the proposed algorithm extends to achieve the formation control. A numerical example and a multiple robotic system are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach.     

有向图中网络Euler-Lagrange系统的自适应协调跟踪

基于一致性理论, 在有向图中研究网络 Euler-Lagrange 系统的协调跟踪控制. 所有跟随智能体的动力学模型均为 Euler-Lagrange 方程. 在仅有部分跟随智能体能获取领航智能体信息的情形下, 同时考虑系统模型的参数不确定性, 设计分布式自适应控制律实现所有跟随智能体对领航智能体的跟踪. 针对领航智能体的运动状态, 考虑以下两种情形: 1) 领航智能体为固定点; 2) 领航智能体为动态点. 对第一种情形, 设计的控制律使得所有跟随智能体渐近交会于固定点; 对第二种情形, 首先对每个跟随智能体设计分布式连续估计器, 然后提出了分布式自适应控制律. 当每个跟随智能体均能获取领航智能体的加速度信息时, 设计的控制律能实现对领航智能体的渐近跟踪, 当跟随智能体不能获取领航智能体的加速度信息时, 跟踪误差是有界的. 最后通过仿真分析验证设计的控制算法是合理有效的.     

Distributed containment control for nonlinear multiagent systems in pure‐feedback form

In this paper, the problem of distributed containment control for pure‐feedback nonlinear multiagent systems under a directed graph topology is investigated. The dynamics of each agent are molded by high‐order nonaffine pure‐feedback form. Neural networks are employed to identify unknown nonlinear functions, and dynamic surface control technique is used to avoid the problem of explosion of complexity inherent in backstepping design procedure. The Frobenius norm of the ideal neural network weighting matrices is estimated, which is helpful to reduce the number of the adaptive tuning law and alleviate the networked communication burden. The proposed distributed containment controllers guarantee that all signals in the closed‐loop systems are cooperatively semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the outputs of followers are driven into a convex hull spanned by the multiple dynamic leaders. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed method is demonstrated by simulation examples.     

Cooperative fuzzy adaptive output feedback control for synchronisation of nonlinear multi-agent systems under directed graphs

This paper considers the leader-following synchronisation problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems with unmeasurable states and a dynamic leader whose input is not available to any follower. Each follower is governed by a nonlinear system with unknown dynamics. Two distributed fuzzy adaptive protocols, based on local and neighbourhood observers, respectively, are proposed to guarantee that the states of all followers synchronise to that of the leader, under the condition that the communication graph among the followers contains a directed spanning tree. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, the synchronisation errors are guaranteed to be cooperatively uniformly ultimately bounded. Two examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.     

A robust adaptive tracking controller using neural networks for a class of nonlinear systems

A neural networkbased robust adaptive tracking control scheme is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems. It is shown that, unlike most neural control schemes using the back-propagation training technique, one hidden layer neural controller is designed in the Lyapunov sense, and the parameters of the neural controller are then adaptively adjusted for the compensation of unknown dynamics and nonlinearities. Using this scheme, not only strong robustness with respect to unknown dynamics and nonlinearities can be obtained, but also asymptotic error convergence between the plant output and the reference model output can be guaranteed. A simulation example based on a one-link non-linear robotic manipulator is given in support of the proposed neural control scheme.