Distributed Time-Varying Formation Control for Multiagent Systems With Directed Topology Using an Adaptive Output-Feedback Approach

Abstract

This paper addresses fully distributed formation control problems for high-order linear multiagent systems (MASs) with directed communication topology. In order to overcome the shortcomings of designing time-varying formation (TVF) protocols via the global information of the communication network and the full states of all the agents in existing formation results, a novel adaptive TVF protocol is developed. First, dynamic output feedback information and sequential observers are used to construct the adaptive TVF protocol. Then, a distributed algorithm which includes a TVF feasibility constraint is proposed. Only local outputs of neighboring agents are used in the algorithm. Moreover, applying the proposed approach and the Lyapunov stability theory, it is found that the fully distributed TVF can be achieved. Finally, numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the theoretical results.