Output-Constrained Consensus Tracking for High-Order Nonlinear Multiagent Systems Under Switching Networks

This article addresses the distributed consensus tracking problem for high-order nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) with nonidentical output constraints under directed switching graphs. Such a practical and important issue has only been taken into limited consideration by the existing literature. In this article, the heterogeneous followers are considered to suffer from nonidentical output constraints, which take precedence over consensus tracking. To this end, a series of intermediate dynamic variables are introduced for each agent to isolate the effect of topologies switching and estimate the output of the leader. Then, distributed adaptive protocols are designed based on a novel constraint transformation. By using an improved mode-dependent average dwell-time lemma, sufficient conditions on switching graphs are given to achieve consensus tracking. Compared with existing results, the proposed scheme can not only guarantee output constraints but also significantly reduce the communication burden and tolerate a certain degree of graph switching. Finally, the proposed method is verified by the inverted pendulum simulation example.