Practical robust formation tracking for multi-agent systems with a nonautonomous leader: A game-based approach

In this paper, the practical formation tracking problems for second-order multi-agent systems (MASs) under the external disturbance and the unknown input are studied. First, a local performance index of the practical formation tracking is introduced for each agent. Second, a practical robust formation tracking protocol via a worst-case game strategy is proposed to achieve the practical formation tracking and counteract the external disturbance and the leader’s unknown input by treating them as two players in the Nash game. Third, a distributed terminal state observer is introduced to provide an analytical solution to the Nash game, ensuring the ϵ-Nash equilibrium. Finally, a multiple mobile robot experimental platform is constructed to demonstrate the theoretical results. The proposed practical robust formation tracking protocol via the distributed game strategy is verified to be effective in practice.