Distributed tracking control of networked chained systems

This paper considers distributed tracking control of multiple nonholonomic chained systems using neighbours' information. With the aid of the cascade structure of each system and properties of persistently excited signals, distributed state feedback tracking controllers and distributed output feedback tracking controllers are proposed such that the tracking errors exponentially converge to zero. To show applications of the proposed results, formation control of wheeled mobile robots is considered. Distributed controllers are obtained with the aid of the proposed theorems. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed results.