Distributed fault detection and isolation for leader–follower multi-agent systems with disturbances using observer techniques

For the purpose of fault detection and isolation for leader–follower multi-agent systems with disturbances, a sliding-mode observer is designed using local information and suitable auxiliary information received from neighbor agents. By means of the observer, each agent can estimate the overall state of follower agents even if they are not directly connected. Then, using the relative output estimations, a residual vector is developed to detect and isolate the fault occurring on any follower agent of the leader–follower multi-agent systems. By the end, numerical simulations are employed to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.