Finite-Time Control for Robust Tracking Consensus in MASs With an Uncertain Leader

This paper investigates the finite-time control for robust tracking consensus problems of multiagent systems with an uncertain leader for situations where the state of the considered active leader may not be measured and the directed network topology is time-varying. Based on the neighbor-based state-estimation rule and a new Lyapunov stability analysis method, a continuous and nonlinear distributed tracking protocol using only relative position information is designed, under which each agent can follow the leader in finite time if the input (acceleration) of the leader is known, and the tracking errors can converge to a bounded region in finite time if the input of the leader is unknown. In particular, a special continuous distributed tracking protocol with bounded control inputs is introduced to track the active leader in finite time. Numerical simulations are also given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretic results.