Event-based distributed sliding mode formation control of multi-agent systems and its applications to robot manipulators

This article deals with the event-based distributed sliding mode formation control issue of leader-following multi-agent systems subject to uncertain perturbations. Firstly, a distributed linear sliding manifold that ensures the asymptotic convergence of the states of multi-agent systems is constructed. Secondly, based on the controller output signal, an event-triggered mechanism is put forward to weaken the demand of continuous monitoring. In spite of external disturbances, the distributed robust sliding mode formation protocol relied on an event-triggered condition can guarantee the closed-loop system to reach the preestablished sliding manifold in finite time and keep a desired formation pattern while eliminating the Zeno behavior. Thirdly, sufficient conditions are derived for the distributed formation control of multi-agent systems. Finally, a numerical example is given and a simulation is performed on the robotic manipulators systems to verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.