Fixed-time consensus of nonlinear multi-agent system with uncertain disturbances based on event-triggered strategy

Area of Science:

• Control Theory
• Robotics
• Networked Systems

Background:

• Multi-agent systems (MASs) often face challenges with continuous communication requirements, leading to high power consumption.
• Achieving consensus in MASs with nonlinear dynamics and uncertain disturbances remains a complex problem.
• Event-triggered control offers a promising approach to reduce communication load in MASs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a fixed-time consensus protocol for MASs with nonlinear dynamics and uncertain disturbances.
• To reduce communication frequency and power consumption through an event-triggered strategy.
• To establish novel fixed-time consensus criteria for MASs under specific conditions.

Main Methods:

• Event-triggered control theory applied to design a consensus protocol.
• Graph topology, fixed-time control methods, and Lyapunov theory utilized for analysis.
• Derivation of fixed-time consensus criteria for nonlinear MASs with Lipschitz conditions and bounded disturbances.

Main Results:

• A novel fixed-time consensus protocol that avoids continuous communication and reduces power consumption.
• Guaranteed consensus within a predefined time for any initial state.
• Demonstration that the proposed control strategy prevents Zeno behavior in MASs.

Conclusions:

• The proposed event-triggered fixed-time consensus protocol is effective for MASs with nonlinear dynamics and disturbances.
• The control scheme is validated through simulations and a practical application involving unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).
• The approach offers a reliable and efficient method for achieving rapid consensus in distributed systems.