Hierarchical Structure-Based Fixed-Time Optimal Fault-Tolerant Time-Varying Output Formation Control for Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems

This article studies the issue of distributed hierarchical fixed-time optimal fault-tolerant output formation for heterogeneous multiagent systems (MASs). A two-layer formation control framework is proposed by using distributed optimization and cooperative fault-tolerant output regulation approaches. The upper layer includes a virtual system and a distributed fixed-time optimization control algorithm to produce a global optimal reference signal, which minimizes the global objective function in a fixed time. The lower layer includes an actual agent system and an adaptive fixed-time fault-tolerant tracking control protocol to compensate for the actuator faults and ensure the fixed-time tracking of the optimal formation trajectory composed of the optimal reference signal and the expected time-varying formation vector. Different from the relevant works, this framework can avoid the phenomenon of fault propagation between neighboring agents by the interaction network. Furthermore, the convergence time of the formation error is not relied on the initial conditions of MASs. Finally, two simulation experiments are designed to prove the effectiveness of the developed theoretics.