Event-triggered finite-time consensus control of leader–follower multi-agent systems with unknown velocities

Abstract

We proposed an event-triggered finite-time consensus (FTC) control scheme for second-order leader–follower nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with unknowable velocities and external disturbances. Because of the immeasurable problem of system velocities, a terminal sliding mode observer (TSMO) which forces velocity errors to converge to zero in a finite time is introduced. Then, construct a distributed event-triggered control law by backstepping method, so that each follower can update the control law independently based on its state error threshold. It is demonstrated that the control scheme can achieve FTC stability and simultaneously ensure the global robustness of the system via the Lyapunov stability analysis. Meantime, the control scheme reduces frequent updates of the control law. Furthermore, there exists a positive lower bound for the inter event time sequence so that the Zeno phenomenon is rejected. In conclusion, the validity of the consensus control protocol is verified by the numerical simulations.