Security-based distributed fuzzy funnel cooperative control for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems against DoS attacks

This article focuses on the distributed funnel cooperative control of nonlinear multi-agent systems suffering denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which aim to disrupt communication links between agents and can lead to discontinuities in system outputs. First, an actual measurement model of output signals is given, and a fuzzy switching observer is designed by utilizing the practical output model to obtain the unknown states. Second, a funnel-based tracking control strategy is presented by skillfully blinding the funnel function and backstepping technique to defend against DoS attacks. A crucial stability criterion is established by combining an improved average dwell time (ADT) approach and Lyapunov stability theory that integrates the constraints imposed by DoS attacks. In particular, based on an appropriate error transformation, the developed control law has a simpler structure than existing barrier function methods to solve performance constraints. It guarantees that the output of each follower agent yi is able to track the reference signal yd, and synchronization errors ϵi=∑s=1Mai,s(yi−ys)+bi(yi−yd) are consistently confined within a prearranged performance funnel Fϕ, (that is, (t,ϵi(t))∈Fϕ,∀t). Ultimately, a simulation example is presented to prove the validity of the established solution.