Distributed prescribed-time leader-follower tracking consensus control for high-order nonlinear MASs

Abstract A novel distributed prescribed-time leader-follower tracking consensus control strategy is proposed for high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with lower triangular time-varying dynamic in directed communication topology. Firstly, a distributed prescribed-time state observer (DPTSO) is presented for follower to observe the leader’s state, transforming the consensus problem into a tracking control problem that the follower tracks the observations of the DPTSO. Then, a distributed prescribed-time controller is developed with the cascade control framework and dynamic control, which avoids differential explosion in traditional back-stepping control. Convergence time of both the DPTSO and the distributed prescribed-time controller is not only explicitly pre-specified but also determined regardless of the initial state of system and control parameters. Finally, it is demonstrated that the closed-loop systems realize prescribed-time full state leader-follower tracking consensus. Simulation results show that the method is effective and feasible.