Tracking and Synchronization Control of the 4WISBW System Considering Uncertain Network Communication Delay

The increased number of controller area network bus nodes in the four-wheel independent steer-by-wire (4WISBW) system introduces uncertain network communication delays in the steering mechanism’s control inputs, reducing tracking accuracy and synchronization performance. To address this issue, we propose a multi-agent adaptive formation control strategy, comprising a nonlinear time-delay estimator (NTDE) and a multi-agent formation controller (MAFC). The NTDE reduces high-frequency oscillations and steady-state errors in delay estimation using a nonlinear integral sliding surface and a chatter-free supertwisting delay equation, while deriving the implicit time-delay system of the steering mechanism through nonsingular transformations. The MAFC constructs a leader-follower formation topology for the 4WISBW implicit time-delay system and designs adaptive coupling coefficients to dynamically adjust the time-varying formation of steering mechanisms, compensating for tracking and synchronization errors caused by network delays. Hardware-in-the-loop testing validates the proposed strategy’s effectiveness.