Sampled-Data Control of Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems

We study the distributed output tracking problem by linear sampled-data control for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems. Specifically, combining the backstepping method with sampled-data method, a series of linear sampled-data controllers are obtained. Stability analysis is performed by using calculus, comparison principle and so on. It is shown that the output tracking error can be tuned arbitrarily small while all the states of the closed-loop system are globally bounded. Finally, a simulation example is given to illustrate the control design.