Finite-time and fixed-time consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems: A unified two-phase control

This paper is devoted to achieving finite-time and fixed-time average consensus of nonlinear multi-agent systems (NMASs). Different from the majority of finite-time and fixed-time controllers, a novel unified two-phase control (UTPC) strategy is proposed to drive NMASs to achieve average consensus in finite/fixed time, which cleverly combines aperiodically intermittent impulsive control and unified feedback control. Furthermore, a pivotal lemma is put forward to provide guidance for selecting controller parameters and estimating the settling time. In the light of the developed control framework, meanwhile, several sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee that all agents can reach finite/fixed-time average consensus. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of our derived results.