Bipartite containment control of nonlinear multi-agent systems with unknown inputs and state constraints

This article addresses the issue of bipartite containment tracking for nonlinear strict feedback multi-agent systems (MASs) with disturbances and measurement uncertainties. To provides a better performance against strong disturbance, a coordination transformation is applied such that all the nonlinear functions, controller disturbances and measurement uncertainties are lumped into a single disturbance signal in the last state equation. Then, the lumped disturbance is compensated through a novel disturbance rebuilding method. Moreover, in order to get better control performance, state constraints are also considered through a nonlinear transformation function (NTF). Different from traditional methods dealing with the state constraint problems, the NTF method can avoid using any discontinuous Lyapunov function. Finally, an adaptive finite-time distributed controller is established via the disturbance estimates, backstepping technique and fuzzy logic system (FLS). The performance of the controller is illustrated by a simulation example in which the bipartite containment formation of followers is realized in a practical finite time.