Abstract
This paper proposes a prescribed-time formation control scheme with low complexity and performance guarantees for second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems with a directed graph. A continuous finite-time control based on the barrier Lyapunov function and a novel performance function is proposed. Within our scheme, the unmodeled dynamics and external disturbances of the system are handled by the combination of a function approximator and a disturbance observer based on neural network and sliding mode control, respectively. Different from many existing finite-time control results, the proposed scheme can set the settling time of the closed-loop system in advance, and there is no discontinuous control term and chattering phenomenon. Finally, it is proved that all signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. At the same time, a set of numerical comparisons intuitively illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed controller.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Olfati-Saber, R., Murray, R.: Consensus problems in networks of agents with switching topology and time-delays. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 49(9), 1520–1533 (2004)
Ren, W., Atkins, E.: Distributed multi-vehicle coordinated control via local information exchange. Int. J. Robust Nonlinear Control 17, 1002–1033 (2010)
Yin, Y.H., Wang, F.Y., Liu, Z.X., Chen, Z.Q.: Fault-tolerant consensus for switched multiagent systems with input saturation. Int. J. Robust Nonlinear Control 31(11), 5047–5068 (2021)
Pang, Z.H., Zheng, C.B., Sun, J., Han, Q., Liu, G.P.: Distance- and velocity-based collision avoidance for time-varying formation control of second-order multi-agent systems’’. IEEE Trans. Circuits II 68(4), 1253–1257 (2021)
Cai, Y., Zhang, H., Wang, Y., Zhang, J., He, Q.: Fixed-time time-varying formation tracking for nonlinear multi-agent systems under event-triggered mechanism. Inf. Sci. 564, 45–70 (2021)
Zhao, Q., Dong, X., Song, X., Ren, Z.: Cooperative time-varying formation guidance for leader-following missiles to intercept a maneuvering target with switching topologies. Nonlinear Dyn. 95, 129–141 (2019)
Gu, N., Wang, D., Peng, Z., Liu, L.: Distributed containment maneuvering of uncertain under-actuated unmanned surface vehicles guided by multiple virtual leaders with a formation. Ocean Eng. 187, 105996 (2019)
Tran, V.P., Garratt, M., Petersen, I.R.: Switching time-invariant formation control of a collaborative multi-agent system using negative imaginary systems theory. Control. Eng. Pract. 95, 104245 (2020)
Gu, D.B., Hu, H.S.: Distributed network-based formation control. Int. J. Syst. Sci. 40(5), 539–552 (2009)
Massioni, P., Keviczky, T., Gill, E., Verhaegen, M.: A decomposition-based approach to linear time-periodic distributed control of satellite formations. IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol. 19(3), 481–492 (2011)
Lin, Z., Wang, L., Han, Z., Fu, M.: Distributed formation control of multi-agent systems using complex Laplacian. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 59(7), 1765–1777 (2014)
Oh, K.K., Park, M.C., Ahn, H.S.: A survey of multi-agent formation control. Automatica 53, 424–440 (2015)
Qin, W., Liu, Z., Chen, Z.: A novel observer-based formation for nonlinear multi-agent systems with time delay and intermittent communication. Nonlinear Dyn. 79, 1651–1664 (2015)
Lu, J., Chen, F., Chen, G.R.: Nonsmooth leader-following formation control of nonidentical multi-agent systems with directed communication topologies. Automatica 69, 112–120 (2016)
Siavash, M., Majd, V.J., Tahmasebi, M.: A practical finite-time back-stepping sliding-mode formation controller design for stochastic nonlinear multi-agent systems with time-varying weighted topology. Int. J. Syst. Sci. 51(3), 488–506 (2020)
Meng, D.Y., Moore, K.L.: Robust cooperative learning control for directed networks with nonlinear dynamics. Automatica 75, 172–181 (2017)
Aryankia, K., Selmic, R.R.: Formation control and target tracking for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems using neural networks. In: European Control Conference, pp. 160–165 (2020)
Cui, Y., Liu, X.P., Deng, X., Wang, Q.: Observer-based adaptive fuzzy formation control of nonlinear multi-agent systems with nonstrict-feedback form. Int. J. Fuzzy Syst. 23(3), 680–691 (2021)
Wang, L.M., He, H.B., Ge, M.F.: Model-independent formation tracking of multiple Euler-Lagrange systems via bounded inputs. IEEE Trans. Cybern. 51(5), 2813–2823 (2021)
Modares, H., Nageshrao, S.P., Lopes, G.A.D., Babuska, R., Lewis, F.L.: Optimal model-free output synchronization of heterogeneous systems using off-policy reinforcement learning. Automatica 71, 334–341 (2016)
Lazim, I.M., Husain, A.R., Mohamed, Z., Basri, M.A.M., Subha, N.A.M., Ramli, L.: Disturbance observer-based formation tracking control of multiple quadrotors in the presence of disturbances. Trans. Inst. Meas. Control. 41(14), 4129–4141 (2019)
Lu, Y., Zhang, G.Q., Sun, Z.J., Zhang, W.D.: Robust adaptive formation control of underactuated autonomous surface vessels based on MLP and DOB. Nonlinear Dyn. 94(1), 503–519 (2018)
Gu, N., Wang, D., Peng, Z., Liu, L.: Observer-based finite-time control for distributed path maneuvering of underactuated unmanned surface vehicles with collision avoidance and connectivity preservation. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Syst. 51(8), 5105–5115 (2021)
Chen, F., Dimarogonas, D.V.: Observer-based leader-follower formation control with prescribed performance guarantees. IEEE Trans. control Netw. Syst. 8(1), 450–461 (2021)
Stamouli, C.J., Bechlioulis, C.P., Kyriakopoulos, K.J.: Multi-agent formation control based on distributed estimation with prescribed performance. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 5(2), 2929–2934 (2020)
Dai, S.L., He, S.D., Chen, X., Xu, J.: Adaptive leader-follower formation control of nonholonomic mobile robots with prescribed transient and steady-state performance. IEEE Trans. Industr. Inf. 16(6), 3662–3671 (2020)
Liu, H.T., Chen, G.J., Tian, X.H.: Cooperative formation control for multiple surface vessels based on barrier Lyapunov function and self-structuring neural networks. Ocean Eng. 216, 108163 (2020)
Jiang, Y., Liu, Z., Chen, Z.: Robust fault-tolerant consensus control for nonlinear multi-agent systems with prescribed transient and steady-state performance. Asian J. Control 24(2), 642–658 (2021)
Hua, C.C., Chen, J.N., Li, Y.F.: Leader-follower finite-time formation control of multiple quadrotors with prescribed performance. Int. J. Syst. Sci. 48(12), 2499–2508 (2017)
Han, S.I.: Prescribed consensus and formation error constrained finite-time sliding mode control for multi-agent mobile robot systems. IET Control Theory Appl. 12(2), 282–290 (2018)
Zhu, Z., Xia, Y., Fu, M.: Attitude stabilization of rigid spacecraft with finite-time convergence. Int. J. Robust Nonlinear Control 21(6), 686–702 (2011)
Sanner, R.M., Slotine, J.E.: Gaussian networks for direct adaptive control. IEEE Trans. Neural Netw. Learn. Syst. 3, 837–863 (1992)
Ge, S.S., Wang, J.: Robust adaptive neural control for a class of perturbed strict feedback nonlinear systems’’. IEEE Trans. Neural Netw. Learn. Syst. 13(6), 1409–1419 (2002)
Wang, X., Li, Z., He, Z., Gao, H.: Adaptive fast smooth second-order sliding mode control for attitude tracking of a 3-DOF helicopter. arXiv e-prints arXiv:2008.10817 (2020)
Ren, B., Ge, S.S., Tee, K.P., Lee, T.H.: Adaptive neural control for output feedback nonlinear systems using a barrier Lyapunov function. IEEE Trans. Neural Netw. 21(8), 1339–1345 (2010)
Tee, K.P., Ren, B., Ge, S.S.: Control of nonlinear systems with time-varying output constraints. Automatica 47, 2511–2516 (2013)
Liu, Y., Liu, X., Jing, Y.: Adaptive neural networks finite-time tracking control for non-strict feedback systems via prescribed performance. Inf. Sci. 468, 29–46 (2018)
Farrell, J.A., Polycarpou, M., Sharma, M., Dong, W.: Command filtered backstepping. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 54(6), 1391–1395 (2009)
Funding
This work was supported by the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20JCYBJC01060), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62103203, 61973175), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant (No. 63201196).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Jiang, Y., Liu, Z. & Chen, Z. Prescribed-time distributed formation control for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems subject to internal uncertainties and external disturbances. Nonlinear Dyn 111, 1643–1655 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-022-07909-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-022-07909-2