Adaptive Finite-Time Bipartite Consensus Tracking Control for Heterogeneous Nonlinear MASs With Time-Varying Output Constraints

In this paper, an adaptive finite-time bipartite consensus tracking control strategy is presented for a class of heterogeneous nonlinear nonstrict-feedback multi-agent systems (MASs) with output constraints. Firstly, to deal with the time-varying output constraints problem, an improved tan-type nonlinear mapping (NM) function is presented for the first time. And based on the improved NM function, a novel tracking error is constructed to design controller for each agent, which guarantees the bipartite consensus tracking is achieved while constraints requirement is not violated. Then, a state observer is designed to estimate the unmeasurable states of each agent. Moreover, in the case of unbalanced directed topological graph, a partition algorithm (PA) is employed to implement bipartite consensus tracking control. The developed distributed adaptive finite-time control strategy ensures that all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded and the bipartite consensus tracking control is achieved in finite time. Finally, the validity of the designed control strategy is demonstrated by a simulation experiment. Note to Practitioners-At present, nonlinear MASs are widely used in practice, such as robots formation control, vehicular platoon systems control, etc. This paper investigated the adaptive finite-time bipartite consensus tracking control problem for a class of heterogeneous nonlinear nonstrict-feedback MASs with output constraints. In the scenarios of practical application, these two situations are common: 1) The communication topology graph of nonlinear MASs is unbalanced. 2) The output of each agent is constrained. Therefore, this paper presents an improved tan-type NM method to deal with the time-varying output constraints problem, and a partition algorithm is employed to implement bipartite consensus tracking control based on the unbalanced communication topology graph. Meanwhile, the nonsingular finite-time control strategy effectively improves the convergence of the studied nonlinear MASs. In addition, the system model and backstepping technology used in this paper are general and practical.