Robust output regulation for containment control of heterogeneous discrete-time nonlinear multi-agent systems

In existing researches on containment control of heterogeneous multi-agent systems (MASs), the solution is usually dependent on the solvability of regulator equations. However, the closed-form solution of many nonlinear regulator equations of systems is rarely obtained. Towards this end, in this paper the containment control problem of heterogeneous discrete-time nonlinear MASs subject to parameter uncertainties is considered, and the power series approach is adopted to solve complex regulator equations by decomposing them into a series of solvable linear equations. Then, a distributed robust control law based on internal model principle is presented by utilising the solution of the linear equations. Theoretical analysis shows that under certain assumptions asymptotic containment control is achieved for the heterogeneous discrete-time nonlinear MASs with sufficiently small parameter perturbations. Finally, a numerical simulation is implemented to verify the proposed control law.