Robust semi-global coordinated tracking of linear multi-agent systems with input saturation

This paper investigates the problem of coordinated tracking of a linear multi-agent system subject to actuator magnitude saturation and dead zone characteristic with input additive uncertainties and disturbances. Distributed consensus and swarm tracking protocols are developed from a low-and-high gain feedback approach. Under the assumption that each agent is asymptotically null controllable with bounded controls, it is shown that robust semi-global consensus tracking and swarm tracking of the multi-agent system can always be reached provided that the networks are connected. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.