Leader–follower consensus of linear multi-agent systems with unknown external disturbances

This paper addresses the leader–follower consensus tracking problem for multi-agent systems with identical general linear dynamics and unknown external disturbances. First, a distributed extended state observer is proposed, where both the local states and disturbance of each agent are estimated simultaneously by using the relative output information between neighbors. Then a consensus algorithm is proposed for each agent based on the relative estimated states between neighbors and its own disturbance estimate. It is shown that, with the proposed observer-based consensus algorithm, the leader–follower consensus problem can be solved. Finally, we present a simulation example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Fixed-time Consensus Tracking for Second-order Leader-follower Multi-agent Systems with Nonlinear Dynamics Under Directed Topology

In this paper, we address the fixed-time consensus tracking problem of second-order leader-follower multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics under directed topology. The consensus tracking algorithm consists of distributed observer and observer-based decentralized controller. The fixed-time distributed observer guarantees that each follower estimates the leader’s state under directed topology within a fixed time, where the upper bound of convergence time is independent on the initial conditions. The fixed-time decentralized controller makes each follower converge to the leader’s state in fixed time via tracking the distributed observer’s state and overcome the nonlinear dynamics without adding linear control terms. Finally, the numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the results.

     

Leader-following scaled consensus of second-order multi-agent systems under directed topologies

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the leader-following scaled consensus problem of second-order multi-agent systems under directed topologies. Three novel leader-following scaled consensus protocols are designed. First, a novel scaled consensus protocol is proposed. It can guarantee the velocity of each agent in one sub-group exactly follow that of a leader, and the follower agents achieve scaled consensus. Second, another proposed protocol enables the agents' positions and velocities of one sub-group accurately track those of a leader, and the follower agents achieve scaled consensus. Third, consider the case where the leader's states available to one or multiple followers and the leader travels with a varying velocity, a novel scaled consensus tracking protocol is proposed. Sufficient and necessary conditions are obtained to guarantee scaled consensus tracking for the three cases,respectively. Finally, simulation examples are made to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

基于有向网络的一致性跟踪算法

研究了leader有控制输入且followers未知该输入条件下的线性多智能 体一致性跟踪问题.提出两种一致性跟踪算法,证明两种算法在leader到followers存在一棵 有向生成树且follower间拓扑是有向条件下,网络就能跟踪leader的状态.对于第一种算法,节点根 据相邻节点或leader的状态来求解其控制输入,并基于代数Riccati不等式给出 连续情形下算法稳定性条件.第二种算法直接利用相邻节点或leader的状态,使followers在上述网络条件下跟踪leader的状态,同样基于代数Riccati不等式给出算法稳定性条件. 仿真结果验证了算法的有效性.     

Global finite-time attitude consensus tracking control for a group of rigid spacecraft

The problem of finite-time attitude consensus for multiple rigid spacecraft with a leader–follower architecture is investigated in this paper. To achieve the finite-time attitude consensus, at the first step, a distributed finite-time convergent observer is proposed for each follower to estimate the leader's attitude in a finite time. Then based on the terminal sliding mode control method, a new finite-time attitude tracking controller is designed such that the leader's attitude can be tracked in a finite time. Finally, a finite-time observer-based distributed control strategy is proposed. It is shown that the attitude consensus can be achieved in a finite time under the proposed controller. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Leader-following consensus problem with an accelerated motion leader

In this paper, we consider a multi-agent consensus problem with an accelerated motion leader and variable interconnection topology. To track such a leader, a neighbor-based local controller together with a neighbor-based state-estimation rule is proposed for each second-order follower-agent. The neighbor-based estimation rule is used to estimate the acceleration of the leader, which is assumed not to be measured by follower agents directly. By constructing a parameter-dependent common Lyapunov function, a sufficient condition is established to guarantee that each agent can follow the leader although the leader moves with an unknown time-variant acceleration. Moreover, the tracking error is estimated for the case that the unknown acceleration part of the leader has bounded derivative. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the obtained result.     

Neural adaptive PID formation control of car-like mobile robots without velocity measurements

A virtual leader–follower formation control of a group of car-like mobile robots is addressed in this paper. First, the kinematic and dynamic models of car-like robots are transformed into a second-order leader–follower formation model which inherits all structural properties of the robot dynamic model. Then, a new observer-based proportional–integral-derivative formation controller is proposed to force that all robots construct a desired formation with respect to a predefined virtual leader. To improve the formation tracking and observation performance, the integral action is incorporated into the design of the observer–controller scheme. Adaptive robust and neural network techniques are also employed to compensate uncertain parameters, unmodeled dynamics, and external disturbances. Lyapunov’s direct method is utilized to show that the formation tracking and observation errors are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Then, the proposed controller is extended to the leader–follower formation of a team of tractor–trailer systems. Finally, simulation results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed controller.     

Adaptive cooperative tracking control of higher-order nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics

A practical design method is developed for cooperative tracking control of higher-order nonlinear systems with a dynamic leader. The communication network is a weighted directed graph with a fixed topology. Each follower node is modeled by a higher-order integrator incorporating with unknown nonlinear dynamics and an unknown disturbance. The leader node is modeled as a higher-order nonautonomous nonlinear system. It acts as a command generator giving commands only to a small portion of the networked group. A robust adaptive neural network controller is designed for each follower node such that all follower nodes ultimately synchronize to the leader node with bounded residual errors. Moreover, these controllers are distributed in the sense that the controller design for each follower node only requires relative state information between itself and its neighbors. A simulation example demonstrates the effectiveness of the algorithm.     

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.     

Distributed adaptive attitude tracking of multiple spacecraft with a leader of nonzero input

This paper considers the distributed attitude tracking problem of multiple spacecraft with a leader whose control input is possibly nonzero, bounded, and not available to any follower. Based on the relative attitudes and angular velocities of neighboring spacecraft, we design a distributed discontinuous adaptive controller to each follower to guarantee that the attitude errors between the followers and the leader converge to zero for any communication graph containing a directed spanning tree with the leader as the root. To tackle the chattering effect caused by the discontinuous controller, we further propose a distributed continuous adaptive controller, under which both the attitude tracking errors and the adaptive gains are ultimately bounded.     

Event‐triggered tracking control of heterogeneous multiagent systems based on two kinds of observers with asymmetric delay

In this paper, we consider the output tracking problem of a multiagent system with asymmetric delays and a switching topology. The multiagent system contains a leader and some followers, the dynamics of which are heterogeneous, and the output of the leader is available to only a subset of followers. We propose two types of observers to estimate states of the leader and reduce communication cost. For the informed followers that can directly obtain information of the leader, a common observer is given to reduce the complexity of observer design. Meanwhile, for the rest of the followers, a distributed observer with asymmetric communication delays for each follower is designed. The observer error system is transformed into a switched system. Through designing the average dwell‐time switching law and constructing multiple Lyapunov functionals, some sufficient conditions for stability of the observer error system are obtained. Furthermore, a distributed controller for followers based on the relative information is developed to track the output of the leader. Finally, an example is given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed results.     

Adaptive neural control for multiagent systems with asymmetric time‐varying state constraints and input saturation

This article investigates the leader‐follower consensus problem of a class of non‐strict‐feedback nonlinear multiagent systems with asymmetric time‐varying state constraints (ATVSC) and input saturation, and an adaptive neural control scheme is developed. By introducing the distributed sliding‐mode estimator, each follower can obtain the estimation of leader's trajectory and track it directly. Then, with the help of time‐varying asymmetric barrier Lyapunov function and radial basis function neural networks, the controller is designed based on backstepping technique. Furthermore, the mean‐value theorem and Nussbaum function are utilized to address the problems of input saturation and unknown control direction. Moreover, the number of adaptive laws is equal to that of the followers, which reduces the computational complexity. It is proved that the leader‐follower consensus tracking control is achieved without violating the ATVSC, and all closed‐loop signals are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, the simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the control scheme.     

An adaptive control architecture for leader–follower multiagent systems with stochastic disturbances and sensor and actuator attacks

In this paper, we develop a novel distributed adaptive control architecture for addressing networked multiagent systems subject to stochastic exogenous disturbances with compromised sensor and actuators. Specifically, for a class of linear leader–follower multiagent systems, we develop a new structure of the neighbourhood synchronisation error for the control design protocol of each follower. The proposed control algorithm addresses time-varying multiplicative sensor attacks on the leader state measurements. In addition, the framework addresses time-varying multiplicative actuator attacks on the followers that do not have a communication link with the leader and additive actuator attacks on all follower agents in the network. The proposed adaptive controller guarantees uniform ultimate boundedness of the state tracking error for each agent in a mean-square sense.     

Observer‐based leader‐following consensus of uncertain nonlinear multi‐agent systems

In this paper, the leader‐following consensus problem of uncertain high‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems on directed graph with a fixed topology is studied, where it is assumed that the relative states of a follower and its neighbors are immeasurable and only the relative outputs are available. Nonlinear adaptive observers are firstly proposed for each follower to estimate the states of it and its neighbors, and an observer‐based distributed adaptive control scheme is constructed to guarantee that all followers asymptotically synchronize to a leader with tracking errors being semi‐globally uniform ultimate bounded. On the basis of algebraic graph theory and Lyapunov theory, the closed‐loop system stability analysis is conducted. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed new design techniques. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

非仿射非线性多智能体系统迭代学习一致跟踪

为了解决非仿射非线性多智能体系统在给定时间区间上一致性完全跟踪问题,基于迭代学习控制方法设计一种分布式一致性跟踪控制算法.首先,由引入的虚拟领导者与所有跟随者组成多智能体系统的通信拓扑,其中虚拟领导者的作用是提供期望轨迹.然后,在只有部分跟随者能够获得领导者信息的条件下,利用每个跟随者及其邻居的跟踪误差构造每个跟随者的迭代学习一致性跟踪控制器.同时采用中值定理将非仿射非线性多智能体系统转化仿射形式,并基于压缩映射方法证明所提算法的收敛性,给出算法的收敛条件.理论分析表明,在智能体的非线性函数未知情况下,利用所提算法可以使非仿射非线性多智能体系统在给定时间区间上随迭代次数增加逐次实现一致性完全跟踪.最后,通过仿真算例进一步验证所提算法的有效性.     

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.     

卫星编队飞行的鲁棒自适应控制方法

研究了主从式框架下编队飞行的相对控制问题.首先推导了描述主从星相对运动的完整非线性动力学模型, 利用完整模型的无摄动形式提出了最优参考轨迹生成问题,并应用高斯伪谱法将此问题转换成非线性规划问题,使其可以数值求解; 基于Lyapunov 方法设计了闭环系统的鲁棒自适应控制器,在存在未知干扰、未知主星轨道参数与控制以及未知从星质量的情况下, 仅利用相对状态测量即能够保证闭环系统的参考轨迹跟踪误差和参数估计误差全局一致最终有界,并证明了跟踪误差的最终界可以 通过选取合理的控制器参数使其任意小;最后给出了具体的仿真场景验证了本文主要结果的有效性.     

Distributed Time-Varying Formation Tracking Analysis and Design for Second-Order Multi-Agent Systems

Distributed time-varying formation tracking analysis and design problems for second-order multi-agent systems with one leader are studied respectively, where the states of followers form a predefined time-varying formation while tracking the state of the leader. Different from the previous results on formation tracking control, the formation for the followers can be described by specified time-varying vectors and the trajectory of the leader can also be time-varying. A distributed formation tracking protocol is constructed using only neighboring relative information. Necessary and sufficient conditions for second-order multi-agent systems with one leader to achieve time-varying formation tracking are proposed by utilizing the properties of the Laplacian matrix, where the formation tracking feasibility constraint is also given. An approach to design the formation tracking protocol is proposed by solving an algebraic Riccati equation. The presented results can be applied to deal with the target enclosing problems and consensus tracking problems for second-order multi-agent systems with one target/leader. An application in the target enclosing of multiple vehicles is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

多智能体系统自适应跟踪控制

基于带有非线性动态的二阶多智能体系统,研究了在有动态领导者条件下的跟踪一致性问题。假设跟随者只能获取邻居智能体的相对状态信息,只有一部分跟随者可以获得领导者的位置和速度信息,领导者的控制输入非零且不被任何一个跟随者可知。在通信拓扑为无向连通图的条件下,为了避免全局信息的不确定性,设计了分布式自适应控制协议。将系统的一致性问题转化为误差系统的一致性问题,通过Lyapunov稳定性理论和矩阵理论分析得到了该协议使系统达到一致的充分条件。最后用仿真例子证明了设计方法的有效性。