Consensus tracking of nonlinear multi-agent systems under input saturation with applications: A sector-based...

Area of Science:

• Control Systems Engineering
• Robotics
• Networked Systems

Background:

• Multi-agent systems (MAS) are crucial for distributed tasks.
• Input saturation and nonlinearities pose significant challenges in MAS control.
• Consensus tracking is vital for coordinated behavior in MAS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robust consensus tracking control strategy for nonlinear MAS under input saturation.
• To address the limitations of existing methods in handling one-sided Lipschitz nonlinearities and directed topologies.
• To ensure a guaranteed region of stability despite input constraints.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing quadratic inner-bounded (QIB) and one-sided Lipschitz (OSL) conditions.
• Deriving a novel sector constraint for saturation functions.
• Applying a convex routine-based approach for controller design.
• Developing a leader-following consensus protocol.

Main Results:

• A novel sector condition effectively handles input saturation in nonlinear MAS.
• The proposed method ensures a guaranteed region of stability.
• A computationally simple approach extracts controller gains and coupling weights.
• The method is applicable to both linear and nonlinear actuator regions.
• Effectively handles OSL nonlinear agents and directed communication topologies.

Conclusions:

• The proposed control strategy offers a robust and effective solution for consensus tracking in nonlinear MAS with input saturation.
• The method provides a significant advancement over conventional schemes by accommodating OSL nonlinearities and utilizing communication topology information.
• Demonstrated effectiveness through numerical examples with nonlinear mobile and robotic agents.