Distributed chattering-free containment control for multiple Euler–Lagrange systems

Abstract

This paper investigates the distributed chattering-free containment control problem for multiple Euler–Lagrange systems with general disturbances under a directed topology. It is considered that only a subset of the followers could receive the information of the multiple dynamic leaders. First, by combining a linear sliding surface with a nonsingular terminal sliding manifold, a distributed chattering-free asymptotic containment control method is proposed under the assumption that the upper bounds of the general disturbances are known. Further, based on the high-order sliding mode control technique, an improved distributed chattering-free finite-time containment control algorithm is developed. Besides, adaptive laws are designed to estimate the unknown upper bounds of the general disturbances. It is demonstrated that all the followers could converge into the convex hull spanned by the leaders under both proposed control algorithms by graph theory and Lyapunov theory. Numerical simulations and comparisons are provided to show the effectiveness of both algorithms.