Fixed-time time-varying output formation–containment control of heterogeneous general multi-agent systems

This work investigates fixed-time time-varying output formation–containment control of heterogeneous general multi-agent systems, which comprises one virtual leader, multiple leaders, and followers. First, fixed-time nonlinear control law is constructed, such that leaders can achieve time-varying output formation in a finite time. Meanwhile, leaders can track the virtual leader’s output trajectory. Next, two complete distributed adaptive fixed-time observers are designed aiming to recover a convex hull. This is key to control issue in this paper. Further, nonlinear control law is constructed for followers, such that followers can move into the convex hull formed by multiple leaders. Finally, two examples are provided to verify the feasibility of the theoretical results.