Observer-Based Leader-Follower Tracking Control for High-Order Multi-Agent Systems with Limited Measurement Information

This paper investigates high-order leader-follower tracking by a multi-agent system (MAS) when only very limited measurement information is available to an agent. We specifically consider the setting where an agent, either leader or follower, only has its first state measured. To address this challenge, we propose to use observers to reconstruct unmeasured quantities and perform observer-based control. We develop a series of novel observers that can allow a follower to estimate the leader's states, even when they cannot communicate with each other, and all of its own unmeasured states. We rigorously prove the convergence of these observers and the resultant distributed tracking control. A simulation result further illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed design.