Aiming at a class of high-order strict feedback nonlinear multi-agent system (MAS) with communication constraints, a novel distributed adaptive back-stepping control method is proposed to cooperatively track the moving targets. Firstly, five agents are used as controlled objects, and all five agents form a “leader-follower” mode with a distributed control structure. Meanwhile, the leader's moving velocity is considered the forward velocity of the whole formation system, and remaining agents follow the leader's movement. Then, each agent tracks the desired formation with a time-varying reference trajectory, thereby achieving the consensus tracking purpose of multi-agent system. Moreover, the multi-agent formation system avoids obstacles with the optimal trajectory and maintains the desired formation movement. Finally, the simulation results show that the designed controller can achieve the lateral and horizontal tracking errors of the multi-agent system to converge quickly, and then keep the system asymptotically stable during tracking process.

This paper investigates the cooperative fault-tolerant tracking problem for multiagent systems with directed topology that experience communication link faults and actuator faults under malicious attacks. Based on a resilient event-triggered mechanism, a novel distributed high-order sliding-mode observer and a robust adaptive cooperative fault-tolerant control method are proposed, which can achieve the desired formation shape tracking under communication limitations and hybrid actuator faults caused by malicious attacks. First, the designed distributed event-triggered observer can estimate the unknown leader. Second, the proposed event-triggered mechanism can be used to reduce the impact of malicious attacks on the information and physical layers of the multiagent system. Additionally, the utilization rate of network communication is further improved so that it can save communication resources by reducing the number of event triggers. Then, based on the information of the leader, the designed robust adaptive cooperative fault-tolerant controller can compensate for the influence of the hybrid actuator faults on the system under malicious attacks. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is verified by two sets of example simulations.

Aiming at the uncertain parameters and transient instability of the system caused by the actuator fault of the multiagent system, this article adopts the radial basis function neural networks to approximate unknown nonlinear function. Then, a novel adaptive fault-tolerant controller is designed based on the combination back-stepping technology and dynamic surface technology to compensate the unknown nonlinear hybrid actuator faults, thereby improving the fault tolerance of the system. Furthermore, the designed controller can guarantee the transient stability of the system through finite-time theory and Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the comparison of two simulation examples is given to verify the effectiveness of the designed controller, which provided an effective research idea for engineering practice.

This paper overcomes the failure of a UAV formation to detect a target in a limited time due to the visual sensor dead zone, thereby delaying the timing of combat. In contrast to the existing actuator failure problem, this paper also considers the influence of the sensor dead zone and obstacles on the process of tracking target. Based on the adaptive back-stepping technology, a cooperative tracking controller is designed that can track the moving targets in a limited time. First, this paper considers the visual sensor model, and then a back-stepping method is used to design a controller for each UAV, and these controllers are used to design an integrated controller for the whole system that overcomes the sensor dead zone and the control signal quantization effect. Second, by applying the approximation property of the neural network, the unknown control gain of the non-strict feedback system can be compensated, and the nonlinear quantization system of UAV actuator dead zone can realize stable dynamic characteristics in a limited time. Finally, based on the Bhat and Bernstein theory, a simulation and an experiment are conducted for comparative analysis to further verify the performance of designed controller.

With the rapid development of informatization, autonomy and intelligence, unmanned swarm formation intelligent operations will become the main combat mode of future wars. Typical unmanned swarm formations such as ground-based directed energy weapon formations, space-based kinetic energy weapon formations, and sea-based carrier-based formations have become the trump card for winning future wars. In a complex confrontation environment, these sophisticated weapon formation systems can precisely strike mobile threat group targets, making them extreme deterrents in joint combat applications. Based on this, first, this paper provides a comprehensive summary of the outstanding advantages, strategic position and combat style of unmanned clusters in joint warfare to highlight their important position in future warfare. Second, a detailed analysis of the technological breakthroughs in four key areas, situational awareness, heterogeneous coordination, mixed combat, and intelligent assessment of typical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms in joint warfare, is presented. An in-depth analysis of the UAV swarm communication networking operating mechanism during joint warfare is provided to lay the theoretical foundation for subsequent cooperative tracking and control. Then, an in-depth analysis of the shut-in technology requirements of UAV clusters in joint warfare is provided to lay a theoretical foundation for subsequent cooperative tracking control. Finally, the technical requirements of UAV clusters in joint warfare are analysed in depth so the key technologies can form a closed-loop kill chain system and provide theoretical references for the study of intelligent command operations.

This paper proposes a distributed adaptive control approach based on consensus theory so that a multi-agent formation can still complete the task despite the local fault of the leader for the multiagent formation system. The controlled object consists of four agents that form a triangle formation system, where one agent acts as the vertex of the triangle, and the remaining agents act as followers in a line. In addition, the speed of the leader is the forward direction of the formation, and the followers are behind the leader. Based on graph theory, the distributed adaptive updating of the agents’ local information parameters are conducted, and the distributed adaptive control law is used to supplement the influence of the leader’s fault in the multi-agent formation. According to the local information of adjacent agents, an overall distributed adaptive fault-tolerant control law is designed, and the stability of the designed controller is proved by constructing the Lyapunov function. Meanwhile, the relative distance error between the horizontal direction and longitudinal direction of the leader-follower converge to zero. The simulation results show that the proposed adaptive control approach has good robustness, which provides a theoretical basis for engineering practice.