Adaptive output consensus tracking of uncertain multi-agent systems

† Part of the work are presented in American Control Conference 2010.

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the adaptive output consensus tracking of a class of nonlinear systems in their higherorder strict-feedback form with mismatched parametric uncertainties. The networked group of nonlinear systems has a time-varying reference as a virtual leader, whose output is available to partial agents in the network. The proposed approach features in a design procedure including distributed estimation of group reference and backstepping-based robust consensus tracking control. In the proposed consensus tracking design, each agent estimates the consensus reference through local communications with its neighbours, and makes distributed control decision based on the estimated consensus reference. The proposed approach allows robust consensus tracking in the presence of mismatched model uncertainties, and the tracking performance is characterised by an ${\mathcal{L}}_2$ index showing the effect of the unavailable reference for part of the networked agents. Sufficient conditions are given to ensure bounded output consensus tracking. Simulation results show satisfactory performances.

Keywords:

• synchronization
• Lagrangian systems
• backstepping
• adaptive redesign

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the technical support of Prof. Yi Guo from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

† Part of the work are presented in American Control Conference 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wenlin Zhang

Wenlin Zhang received his BEng degree in automation from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China. He is now a PhD candidate at Stevens Institute of Technology. He is also a staff Servo Engineer at the Western Digital Corporation. His research interests include nonlinear control, cooperative control, and cognitive radio networks.

Zheng Wang

Zheng Wang obtained his PhD degree from the University of Calgary, Department of Mechanical Engineering, in 2008. Currently, he holds a postdoctoral Research Fellow position at the University of Toronto after having worked at Stevens Institute of Technology for two and a half years. His research interests focus on nonlinear control, multi-agent systems, and optical networks.