Containment Control of General Linear Multi-agent Systems with Multiple Dynamic Leaders: a Fast Sliding Mode Based Approach

In this paper, distributed containment control problems of general linear multi-agent systems are investigated. The objective is to make the followers in a multi-agent network converge to the convex hull spanned by some leaders whose control inputs are nonzero and not available to any followers. Sliding mode surfaces are defined for the cases of reduced order and non-reduced order, respectively. For each case, fast sliding mode controllers are designed. It is shown that all the error trajectories exponentially reach the sliding mode surfaces in a finite time if for each follower, there exists at least one of the leaders who has a directed path to the follower, and the leaders' control inputs are bounded. The control Lyapunov function for exponential finite time stability, motivated by the fast terminal sliding mode control, is used to prove reachability of the sliding mode surfaces. Simulation examples are given to illustrate the theoretical results.      

Distributed containment control of multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics in the presence of multiple leaders

This paper considers the containment control problems for both continuous‐time and discrete‐time multi‐agent systems with general linear dynamics under directed communication topologies. Distributed dynamic containment controllers based on the relative outputs of neighboring agents are constructed for both continuous‐time and discrete‐time cases, under which the states of the followers will asymptotically converge to the convex hull formed by those of the leaders if, for each follower, there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to that follower. Sufficient conditions on the existence of these dynamic controllers are given. Static containment controllers relying on the relative states of neighboring agents are also discussed as special cases. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Distributed finite‐time fault‐tolerant error constraint containment algorithm for multiple ocean bottom flying nodes with tan‐type barrier Lyapunov function

The ocean bottom flying node (OBFN) is a special autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for seabed resource exploration. In this article, unmodeled uncertainties, thruster faults, and ocean disturbances are considered. The trajectory errors are constrained. Based on the directed topology, the distributed finite‐time fault‐tolerant error constraint containment control problem for multiple OBFN systems is solved, while only a part of follower OBFNs can measure the state of leaders. By using the backstepping method and a tan‐type barrier lyapunov function (BLF), a novel form of virtual controller is constructed. Neural network is employed to approximate and compensate the general disturbances. And the upper bound of the estimation error is dealt with by proposing an adaptive law. Besides, the trajectory errors can be constrained to a small neighborhood of zero in finite time. In other words, follower OBFNs can reach the convex hull consisted of leaders in finite time. The effectiveness of the designed algorithm is shown by presenting numerical experiment.     

Fully distributed adaptive sliding-mode controller design for containment control of multiple Lagrangian systems

In this paper, we study the containment control problem for multiple Lagrangian systems with multiple dynamic leaders in the presence of parametric uncertainties and external disturbances with fully distributed controllers under an undirected graph. We first propose a fully distributed adaptive sliding-mode control algorithm combined with distributed sliding-mode estimators, without requiring the upper bounds of the derivatives of the leaders’ states and any other global information to be known by each follower. To reduce the effect on the varying gain during the adaption mainly caused by the initial error, fully distributed adaptive time-varying sliding-mode control is presented for controller design. To tackle the chattering effect caused by the discontinuous controller, we further propose a fully distributed continuous adaptive controller, under which both the containment errors and the adaptive gains are ultimately bounded. Simulation results are given to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Containment control of multi‐agent systems by exploiting the control inputs of neighbors

This paper studies the containment control problem for multi‐agent systems consisting of multiple leaders and followers connected as a network. The objective is to design control protocols so that the leaders will converge to a certain desired formation while the followers converge to the convex hull of the leaders. A novel protocol is proposed by exploiting the control input information of neighbors. Both continuous‐time and discrete‐time systems are considered. For continuous‐time systems, it is proved that the protocol is robust to any constant delays of the neighbors' control inputs. For discrete‐time systems, a sufficient condition on the feedback gain for the containment control is given in terms of the time delay and graph information. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive containment control of second-order multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics and multiple input-bounded leaders

This paper considers the adaptive containment control problem of second-order multi-agent systems with inherent nonlinear dynamics. In particular, the leaders’ control inputs are nonzero, bounded, and not available to any follower. Based on the relative states among neighbouring agents, a discontinuous adaptive protocol is first proposed to ensure that the containment errors of each follower converge to zero asymptotically, i.e. the states of the followers asymptotically converge to the convex hull spanned by those of the leaders. To eliminate the chattering effect caused by the discontinuous protocol, a continuous adaptive protocol is further designed based on the boundary layer technique and the σ-modification technique. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.     

Distributed adaptive fault‐tolerant leader‐following formation control of nonlinear uncertain second‐order multi‐agent systems

This paper presents a distributed integrated fault diagnosis and accommodation scheme for leader‐following formation control of a class of nonlinear uncertain second‐order multi‐agent systems. The fault model under consideration includes both process and actuator faults, which may evolve abruptly or incipiently. The time‐varying leader communicates with a small subset of follower agents, and each follower agent communicates to its directly connected neighbors through a bidirectional network with possibly asymmetric weights. A local fault diagnosis and accommodation component are designed for each agent in the distributed system, which consists of a fault detection and isolation module and a reconfigurable controller module comprised of a baseline controller and two adaptive fault‐tolerant controllers, activated after fault detection and after fault isolation, respectively. By using appropriately the designed Lyapunov functions, the closed‐loop stability and asymptotic convergence properties of the leader‐follower formation are rigorously established under different modes of the fault‐tolerant control system.     

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.     

Robust containment of uncertain linear multi‐agent systems under adaptive protocols

In this paper, robust containment problem is investigated for a class of multi‐leader multi‐agent linear systems in the presence of time‐varying uncertainties. To achieve containment, a new kind of adaptive containment protocols are proposed for the multi‐agent systems. Specifically, the designed protocols consist of a continuous linear term and a discontinuous term. The linear term of the designed protocol is employed to achieve containment while the discontinuous term is utilized to eliminate the effect of uncertain dynamics on the achievement of containment. By using tools from non‐smooth analysis and algebraic graph theory, some efficient criteria for achieving robust containment in the closed‐loop multi‐agent systems are obtained and analyzed. One favorable property of the designed protocol is that containment in the closed‐loop multi‐agent systems can be achieved in a fully distributed fashion over any given connected and detail‐balanced communication graph without using any global information about the communication graph. The effectiveness of the analytical results is finally verified by performing numerical simulations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed Fixed‐Time Coordinated Tracking for Nonlinear Multi‐Agent Systems Under Directed Graphs

This paper is concerned with the fixed‐time coordinated tracking problem for a class of nonlinear multi‐agent systems under detail‐balanced directed communication graphs. Different from conventional finite‐time coordinated tracking strategies, the fixed‐time approach developed in this paper guarantees that a settling time bound is prescribed without dependence on initial states of agents. First, for the case of a single leader, a distributed protocol based on fixed‐time stability techniques is proposed for each follower to accomplish the consensus tracking in a fixed time. Second, in the presence of multiple leaders, a new distributed protocol is proposed such that states of followers converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by those of leaders in a fixed time. In addition, for a class of linear multi‐agent systems, sufficient conditions that guarantee the fixed‐time coordinated tracking are provided. Finally, numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Distributed Containment Control for Nonlinear Multi‐Agent Systems with Time‐Delayed Protocol

In this paper, the containment control problem is considered for nonlinear multi‐agent systems with directed communication topology. Under the guidance of designed distributed communication protocols with/without previous state information, the followers are expected to converge to a dynamic convex hull spanned by multiple leaders. Two multi‐step algorithms are proposed to construct the corresponding protocols, the state feedback protocol and the delay‐coupled protocol, under which the containment control can be achieved asymptotically. Furthermore, it is found that the delay‐coupled protocol is rather sensitive to time delays. That is, real‐time tracking will become impossible by only using long‐dated previous state information. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed schemes.     

Robust containment control in a leader–follower network of uncertain Euler–Lagrange systems

A distributed controller is developed that yields cooperative containment control of a network of autonomous dynamical systems. The networked agents are modeled with uncertain nonlinear Euler–Lagrange dynamics affected by an unknown time‐varying exogenous disturbance. The developed continuous controller is robust to input disturbances and uncertain dynamics such that asymptotic convergence of the follower agents' states to the dynamic convex hull formed by the leaders' time‐varying states is achieved. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed controller. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed output regulation of leader–follower multi‐agent systems

In this paper, distributed leader–follower control algorithms are presented for linear multi‐agent systems based on output regulation theory and internal model principle. By treating a leader to be followed as an exosystem, the proposed framework can be used to generalize existing multi‐agent coordination solutions to allow the identical agents to track an active leader with different dynamics and unmeasurable variables. Moreover, the obtained results for multi‐agent coordination control are an extension of previous work on centralized and decentralized output regulation to a distributed control context. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the distributed output regulation problem are given. Finally, distributed output regulation of some classes of multi‐agent systems with switching interconnection topologies are discussed via both static and dynamic feedback. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fixed‐Time Synchronization of a Class of Second‐Order Nonlinear Leader‐Following Multi‐Agent Systems

The fixed‐time synchronization problem for a class of second‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems with a leader‐follower architecture is investigated in this paper. To achieve the fixed‐time tracking task, the design procedure is divided into two steps. At the first step, a distributed fixed‐time observer is designed for each agent to estimate the leader's state in a fixed time. Then, at the second step, based on the technique of adding a power integrator, a fixed‐time tracking controller for each agent is proposed such that the estimate leader's state can be tracked in a fixed time. Finally, an observer‐based fixed‐time controller is developed such that the leader can be tracked by all the followers in a fixed time, which can be predetermined. Simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Robust containment tracking of uncertain linear multi-agent systems: a non-smooth control approach

This paper addresses the distributed robust containment tracking problem of networked systems with uncertain linear dynamics and multiple controlled leaders. The uncertainty class considered in this paper satisfies some matched conditions. To achieve containment tracking in such a multi-agent system, some distributed controllers consisting of using relative state-based continuous feedback and a non-smooth manoeuvre are developed. By transforming the containment tracking problem into the global robust stabilisation problem of interconnected systems, it is shown that the states of followers will asymptotically converge to a convex hull formed by those of the leaders if the control parameters in the proposed controllers are appropriately selected. It is clearly pointed out that the involved control parameters can be successfully found for solving the containment tracking problem if each follower can be directly or indirectly influenced by at least one leader, and the nominal dynamics of followers are stabilisable. The important issue of how fast containment can be achieved is also addressed. Finally, some numerical simulations are given for illustration.     

Distributed formation‐containment control with Euler‐Lagrange systems subject to input saturation and communication delays

This paper is concerned with the problem of formation‐containment on networked systems, with interconnected systems modeled by the Euler‐Lagrange equation with bounded inputs and time‐varying delays on the communication channels. The main results are the design of control algorithms and sufficient conditions to ensure the convergence of the network. The control algorithms are designed as distributed dynamic controllers, in such a way that the number of neighbors of each agent is decoupled from the bound of the control inputs. That is, in the proposed approach the amplitude of the input signal does not directly increase with the number of neighbors of each agent. The proposed sufficient conditions for the asymptotic convergence follow from the Lyapunov‐Krasovskii theory and are formulated in the linear matrix inequalities framework. The conditions rely only on the upper bound of delays and on a subset of the controller parameters, but they do not depend on the model of each agent, which makes it suitable for networks with agents governed by distinct dynamics. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method we present numerical examples and compare with similar approaches existing in the literature.     

Event-triggered distributed containment control of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems by an output regulation approach

In this paper, the event-triggered distributed containment control of heterogeneous linear multi-agent systems in the output regulation framework is studied. The leaders are treated as exosystems and the containment control problem will be converted into an output regulation problem. An event-triggered protocol is then designed for each follower by the output information of neighbours. It is proved that the followers can asymptotically converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by multiple leaders under the designed protocol and triggered strategy. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed protocol and triggered condition can exclude Zeno behaviour, so the feasibility of the control strategy is verified. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.     

Formation‐containment control of networked collision‐free Lagrangian systems

The distributed formation‐containment (DFC) problem under a directed graph is addressed for networked Euler‐Lagrange systems. First, using a leader‐follower framework, the DFC problem is properly defined. For the leaders and the followers, respectively, a DFC control law is next proposed without using velocity information. Based on the artificial potential function, all the agents can achieve the control objective satisfactorily while avoiding collisions with others as well as the obstacles in the environment. By the Lyapunov stability theory, the boundedness of the error signals is guaranteed. Simulations are finally given to show the feasibility of this approach.