Finite-time consensus control for a class of multi-agent systems with dead-zone input

This paper investigates a finite-time consensus issue for non-affine pure-feedback multi-agent systems with dead-zone input. Compared with the existing results on multi-agent systems, finite-time consensus problem of non-affine multi-agent systems is proposed for the first time. Based on the backsteppting technique, adaptive finite-time consensus control scheme is presented. With the help of this strategy, adaptive virtual variables, adaptive laws and the actual controller are designed to guarantee that the consensus errors converge to a small scale of the origin in finite time. Finally, a practical example is applied to verify the feasibility of the proposed method.     

Event-triggered adaptive control of multi-agent systems with saturated input and partial state constraints

In this paper, we study the consensus tracking control problem of a class of strict-feedback multi-agent systems (MASs) with uncertain nonlinear dynamics, input saturation, output and partial state constraints (PSCs) which are assumed to be time-varying. An adaptive distributed control scheme is proposed for consensus achievement via output feedback and event-triggered strategy in directed networks containing a spanning tree. To handle saturated control inputs, a linear form of the control input is adopted by transforming the saturation function. The radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is applied to approximate the uncertain nonlinear dynamics. Since the system outputs are the only available data, a high-gain adaptive observer based on RBFNN is constructed to estimate the unmeasurable states. To ensure that the constraints of system outputs and partial states are never violated, a barrier Lyapunov function (BLF) with time-varying boundary function is constructed. Event-triggered control (ETC) strategy is applied to save communication resources. By using backstepping design method, the proposed distributed controller can guarantee the boundedness of all system signals, consensus tracking with a bounded error and avoidance of Zeno behavior. Finally, the correctness of the theoretical results is verified by computer simulation.     

Consensus tracking control for nonlinear multiagent systems with asymmetric state constraints and input delays

In this paper, the consensus tracking problem is studied for a group of nonlinear heterogeneous multiagent systems with asymmetric state constraints and input delays. Different from the existing works, both input delays and asymmetric state constraints are assumed to be nonuniform and time-varying. By introducing a nonlinear mapping to handle the problem caused by state constraints, not only the feasibility condition is removed, but also the restriction on the constraint boundary functions is relaxed. The time-varying input delays are compensated by developing an auxiliary system. Furthermore, by utilizing the dynamic surface control method, neural network technology and the designed finite-time observer, the distributed adaptive control scheme is developed, which can achieve the synchronization between the followers’ output and the leader without the violation of full-state constraints. Finally, a numerical simulation is provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control protocol.     

Distributed adaptive output-feedback tracking control of non-affine multi-agent systems with prescribed performance

This paper addresses the distributed adaptive output-feedback tracking control problem of uncertain multi-agent systems in non-affine pure-feedback form under a directed communication topology. Since the control input is implicit for each non-affine agent, we introduce an auxiliary first-order dynamics to circumvent the difficulty in control protocol design and avoid the algebraic loop problem in control inputs and the unknown control gain problem. A decentralized input-driven observer is applied to reconstruct state information of each agent, which makes the design and synthesis extremely simplified. Based on the dynamic surface control technique and neural network approximators, a distributed output-feedback control protocol with prescribed tracking performance is derived. Compared with the existing results, the restrictive assumptions on the partial derivative of non-affine functions are removed. Moreover, it is proved that the output tracking errors always stay in a prescribed performance bound. The simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Adaptive tracking control for nonlinear heterogeneous multi-agent systems with unknown dynamics

This paper is concerned with the tracking control problem for nonlinear heterogeneous multi-agent systems with a static leader, where the leader’s state is only available to a small portion of follower agents. The considered multi-agent system is composed of first- and second-order follower agents with unknown nonlinearities and unknown disturbances, and the communication graph of follower agents is fixed and directed. A robust adaptive neural network controller is designed for each follower agent. By applying the Lyapunov theory with the singular value analysis method, it is shown that all follower agents will synchronize to the leader agent with bounded residual errors. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical findings.     

Behavior learning based distributed tracking control for human-in-the-loop multi-agent systems

In this study, the distributed tracking problem for human-in-the-loop multi-agent systems (HiTL MASs) has been investigated. First, we construct an HiTL MAS model with a non-autonomous leader which can receive the control signal from a human operator and generate the desired trajectory. The human control signal is assumed to be generated by a leader’s state feedback control law with an unknown gain matrix that represents the control behavior of the human operator. Then, we propose a fully distributed adaptive control method that enables all followers to simultaneously track the human-controlled leader and online learn the unknown human operator’s feedback gain matrix. Furthermore, the parameter estimation error is also discussed, and all followers will learn the true value of the human operator’s feedback gain matrix when the state of the leader satisfies the persistent excitation (PE) condition. Moreover, a novel distributed adaptive control law is developed for each follower to remove the PE condition by utilizing the concurrent learning (CL) technique. Finally, simulated examples demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies are presented.     

Command filter-based adaptive fault-tolerant tracking control for uncertain non-strict feedback multi-agent systems with or without state constraints

This paper considers the topic of adaptive leader-following fault-tolerant tracking control for a class of non-strict feedback nonlinear multi-agent systems with or without state constraints in a unified solution. Through the use of certain transformation techniques, the original constraint system is recast as a new completely unconstrained system. Compared with the existing results, the limitation that the constraint functions need upper bound is relaxed. By employing radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) to approximate the unknown functions. A novel adaptive fault-tolerant consensus tracking control (CTC) manner is raised with command filtered backstepping design. Then, through the Lyapunov stability analysis, the proposed scheme can ensure all signals in the closed-loop system are cooperative semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB). Finally, simulation example confirms the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Robust distributed tracking control for linear multi-agent systems based on distributed intermediate estimator

This paper considers the distributed tracking control problem for linear multi-agent systems with disturbances and a leader whose control input is nonzero and not available to any follower. Based on the relative output measurements of neighboring agents, a novel distributed observer-based tracking protocol is proposed, where the distributed intermediate estimators are constructed to estimate the leader’s unknown control input and the states of the tracking error system simultaneously, then a distributed tracking protocol is designed based on the derived estimates. It is proved that the states of the tracking error system are uniformly ultimately bounded and an explicit tracking error bound is obtained. A simulation example of aircrafts verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Adaptive neural network control for nonstrict-feedback uncertain nonlinear systems with input delay and asymmetric time-varying state constraints

This paper is devoted to adaptive neural network control issue for a class of nonstrict-feedback uncertain systems with input delay and asymmetric time-varying state constraints. State-related external disturbances are involved into the system, and the upper bounds of disturbances are assumed as functions of state variables instead of constants. Additionally, during the approximations of unknown functions by neural networks, the online computation burdens are declined sharply, since the norms of neural network weight vectors are only estimated. In the process of dealing with input delay, an auxiliary function is applied such that the conditions for time delay are more general than the ones in existing literature. A novel adaptive neural network controller is designed by constructing the asymmetric barrier Lyapunov function, which guarantees that the output of system has a good tracking performance and the state variables never violate the asymmetric time-varying constraints. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to verify the proposed adaptive control scheme.     

Consensus of multi-agent systems with both input amplitude and input rate constraints

In this paper, the consensus problem is considered for multi-agent systems with input constraint under directed graphs, including leaderless and leader-following cases. Different from existing related works, the distinct feature of this paper is that both the amplitude and rate of the agents’ input are ensured in the given ranges. For the leaderless case, the saturation control strategy is designed and employed for multi-agent systems consensus with the aid of a novel saturation function. For the leader-following case, the saturation-function-based distributed observer as well as the observer-based saturation controller are proposed to achieve consensus. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of the designed methods.     

Global practical tracking for nonlinear systems with uncertain dead-zone input via output feedback

In this paper, global practical tracking is investigated via output feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems subject to unknown dead-zone input. The nonlinear systems under consideration allow more general growth restriction, where the growth rate includes unknown constant and output polynomial function. Without the precise priori knowledge of dead-zone characteristic, an input-driven observer is designed by introducing a novel dynamic gain. Based on non-separation principle, a universal adaptive output feedback controller is proposed by combining dynamic high-gain scaling approach with backstepping method. The controller proposed guarantees that the closed-loop output can track any smooth and bounded reference signal by any small pre-given tracking error, while all closed-loop signals are globally bounded. Finally, simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of our dynamic output feedback control scheme.     

Hybrid adaptive bionic fuzzy control method for MIMO systems with dead-zone input

In this research, a hybrid adaptive bionic fuzzy control strategy is developed for a class of complicated nonlinear multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems with dead-zone input. The first component of the bionic adaptive controller is a general phrase for tunning system parameters depending on the present state, and the second component is a trend-based compensation for adjusting the system parameters. This technique makes the system more intelligent and boosts its anti-interference capabilities. The stability and convergence are analyzed using the Lyapunov synthetic method, and thus the parameter restrictions of the MIMO system are provided. Finally, the strong anti-interference of the system is verified by the simulations.     

Event-triggered tracking control for couple-group multi-agent systems

This paper mainly investigates the event-triggered tracking control for couple-group multi-agent systems in a disturbance environment, where the topology of the agents is switching. Consensus protocol is designed for the case that some agents reach a consistent value, while the other agents reach another consistent value. Then, event-triggered control laws are designed to reduce the frequency of individual actuation updating for discrete-time agent dynamics. Moreover, by applying the Lyapunov function method, a sufficient condition of couple-group consensus is established in terms of a matrix inequality when the communication topology is switching. Finally, simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Adaptive sliding mode control for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent tracking systems subject to node failures

The tracking problem of high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (MAS) with uncertainty is solved by designing adaptive sliding mode control. During the tracking process, node failures are possible to occur, a new agent replaces the failed one. Firstly, a distributed nonsingular terminal sliding mode(NTSM) control scheme is designed for the tracking agents. A novel continuous function is designed in the NTSM to eliminate the singularity and meanwhile guarantee the estimation of finite convergence time. Secondly, the unknown uncertainties in the tracking agents are compensated by proposing an adaptive mechanism in the NTSM. The adaptive mechanism adjusts the control input through estimating the derivative bound of the unknown uncertainties dynamically. Thirdly, the tracking problem with node failures and agent replacements is further investigated. Based on the constructed impulsive-dependent Lyapunov function, it is proved that the overall system will track the target in finite time even with increase of jump errors. Finally, comparison simulations are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of proposed adaptive nonsingular terminal sliding mode control method for tracking systems suffering node failures.     

Robust adaptive visual tracking control for uncertain robotic systems with unknown dead-zone inputs

This paper is concerned with the image-based visual servoing (IBVS) control for uncalibrated camera-robot system with unknown dead-zone constraint, where the uncertain kinematics and dynamics are also considered. The control implementation is achieved by constructing a smooth inverse model for dead-zone-input to eliminate the nonlinear effect resulting from the actuator constraint. A novel adaptive algorithm, which does not require a priori knowledge of the parameter intervals of dead-zone model, is proposed to update the parameter values online, and the dead-zone slopes are not required the same. Furthermore, to accommodate the uncertainties of uncalibrated camera-robot system, adaptation laws are developed to estimate the uncertain parameters, simultaneously avoiding singularity of the image Jacobian matrix. With the full consideration of unknown dead-zone constraint and system uncertainties, an adaptive robust visual tracking control scheme together with dead-zone compensation is subsequently established such that the image tracking error converges to the origin. Based on a 3-DOF manipulator, simulations are conducted to verify the tracking performance of the proposed controller.     

Distributed consensus tracking control based on state and disturbance observations for mixed-order multi-agent mechanical systems

In this paper, we study the cooperative consensus control problem of mixed-order (also called hybrid-order) multi-agent mechanical systems (MMSs) under the condition of unmeasurable state, unknown disturbance and constrained control input. Here, the controlled mixed-order MMSs are consisted of the mechanical agents having heterogeneous nonlinear dynamics and even non-identical orders, which means that the agents can be of different types and their states to be synchronized can be not exactly the same. In order to achieve the ultimate synchronization of all mixed-order followers, we present a novel distributed adaptive tracking control protocol based on the state and disturbance observations. Wherein, a distributed state observer is used to estimate the followers’ and their neighbors’ unmeasurable states. And, a novel estimated-state-based disturbance observer (DOB) is proposed to reduce the effect of unknown lumped disturbance for the mixed-order MMSs. The proposed control protocol and observers are fully distributed and can be calculated for each follower locally. Lyapunov theory is used for proving the stability of the proposed control algorithm and the convergence of the cooperative tracking errors. A practical cooperative longitudinal landing control example of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented control protocol.     

Adaptive fuzzy fixed time control for pure-feedback stochastic nonlinear systems with full state constraints

In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy fixed time control scheme is developed for stochastic pure-feedback nonlinear systems with full state constraints. The mean value theorem is exploited to deal with the problem of nonaffine appearance in the systems and transform the structure of pure-feedback to the structure of strict-feedback. The barrier Lyapunov functions are constructed to guarantee that all states in the systems maintain within the prescribed constraints and the fuzzy logic systems are employed to approximate unknown nonlinear functions at each step. Then, an adaptive fuzzy fixed time controller is constructed by utilizing backstepping technique, which guarantees that all the signals in the considered systems are semiglobally uniform ultimately bounded in a fixed time. Finally, the validity of the proposed fixed time control scheme is verified via a simulation example.     

Data-driven control of consensus tracking for discrete-time multi-agent systems

This paper investigates the consensus tracking problem of leader-follower multi-agent systems. Different from most existing works, dynamics of all the agents are assumed completely unknown, whereas some input-output data about the agents are available. It is well known from the Willems et al. Fundamental Lemma that when inputs of a linear time-invariant (LTI) system are persistently exciting, all possible trajectories of the system can be represented in terms of a finite set of measured input-output data. Building on this idea, the present paper proposes a purely data-driven distributed consensus control policy which allows all the follower agents to track the leader agent’s trajectory. It is shown that for a linear discrete-time multi-agent system, the corresponding controller can be designed to ensure the global synchronization with local data. Even if the data are corrupted by noises, the proposed approach is still applicable under certain conditions. Numerical examples corroborate the practical merits of the theoretical results.