Robust Consensus of High-Order Systems Under Output Constraints: Application to Rendezvous of Underactuated UAVs

• Published in: IEEE transactions on automatic control Vol. 68; no. 1; pp. 329 - 342
• Main Authors: Restrepo, Esteban, Loria, Antonio, Sarras, Ioannis, Marzat, Julien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.01.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Aerospace industry; Automatic Control Engineering; Collision avoidance; Computer Science; Consensus; control under constraints; Diffusion tensor imaging; Lyapunov methods; Mathematical models; Multi-agent systems; Multiagent systems; multiagent vehicles; Nonlinear systems; robust stability; Robustness; Stability analysis; Topology; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Vehicle dynamics
• ISSN: 0018-9286; 1558-2523; 2334-3303; 1558-2523
• DOI: 10.1109/TAC.2022.3144107

We solve output- and state-consensus problems for multiagent high-order systems in feedback form. We consider systems interconnected over arbitrary (connected) undirected-topology networks as well as directed spanning-trees and directed cycles. We assume that the systems may be subject to multiple restrictions in the form of output or state constraints, such as limited-range measurements and physical limitations. In addition, we suppose that the systems may be subject to external disturbances. Under these conditions, we present a control framework and a formal analysis that establishes robust stability in the input-to-state sense. The former relies on a modified backstepping method and the latter on multistability theory. Finally, we apply our approach to a case-study of interest in the aerospace industry: Safety-aware rendezvous control of underactuated UAVs subject to connectivity and collision-avoidance constraints.