This paper addresses the event-triggered neuroadaptive bipartite containment tracking problem for networked unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) subject to resource constraints and actuator failures. A fully distributed event-triggered mechanism is innovatively developed to eliminate dependency on global information while rigorously excluding the Zeno phenomenon through nonperiodic threshold verification. The proposed mechanism enables neighboring UAVs to exchange information and update control signals exclusively at triggering instants, significantly reducing communication burdens and energy consumption. To handle unknown nonlinear dynamics under resource-limited scenarios, a novel event-triggered neural network (NN) approximation scheme is established where weight updating occurs only during event triggers, effectively decreasing computational resource occupation. Simultaneously, an adaptive robust compensation mechanism is constructed to counteract composite disturbances induced by actuator failures and approximation residuals. Based on the Lyapunov stability analysis, we theoretically prove that all closed-loop signals remain uniformly ultimately bounded while achieving prescribed bipartite containment objectives, where follower UAVs ultimately converge to the dynamic convex hull formed by multiple leaders with cooperative-competitive interactions. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. Comparative simulation results show that the proposed event-triggered control scheme reduces the utilization of resources by $95\%$ and $67\%$ compared with the traditional time-triggered and static-triggered mechanisms, respectively.

Actuator faults and external disturbances, which are inevitable due to material fatigue, operational wear and tear, and unforeseen environmental impacts, cause significant threats to the control reliability and performance of networked systems. Therefore, this paper primarily focuses on the distributed adaptive bipartite consensus tracking control problem of networked Euler–Lagrange systems (ELSs) subject to actuator faults and external disturbances. A robust distributed control scheme is developed by combining the adaptive distributed observer and neural-network-based tracking controller. On the one hand, a new positive definite diagonal matrix associated with an asymmetric Laplacian matrix is constructed in the distributed observer, which can be used to estimate the leader’s information. On the other hand, neural networks are adopted to approximate the lumped uncertainties composed of unknown matrices and external disturbances in the follower model. The adaptive update laws are designed for the unknown parameters in neural networks and the actuator fault factors to ensure the boundedness of estimation errors. Finally, the proposed control scheme’s effectiveness is validated through numerical simulations using two types of typical ELS models: two-link robot manipulators and quadrotor drones. The simulation results demonstrate the robustness and reliability of the proposed control approach in the presence of actuator faults and external disturbances.

Flocking control in networked agent systems (NASs) has been extensively studied, yet many existing methods overlook two critical issues: the need for fast, predictable convergence, and resilience against false data injection (FDI) attacks. To tackle these challenges, this paper proposes a secure predefined-time quasi-flocking control scheme leveraging neural networks. First, a predefined-time control protocol is formulated via a time-varying scaling function, which ensures that all agents achieve quasi-flocking behavior within a prescribed time, independent of their initial conditions. This design guarantees rapid and predictable convergence. Second, radial basis function (RBF) neural networks are employed to estimate the unknown disturbances induced by FDI attacks. A novel adaptive update law is developed to dynamically compensate for these uncertainties in real-time. Lyapunov-based analysis rigorously proves that the proposed control strategy achieves predefined-time quasi-flocking while preserving robustness against adversarial attacks. Finally, extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach ensures rapid convergence and robust performance in flocking control.

Signed networks, which incorporate both cooperative and antagonistic interactions, naturally give rise to symmetric behaviors in multi-agent systems. One such behavior is bipartite containment tracking, where follower agents converge to a symmetric configuration determined by multiple groups of leaders with opposing influence. Moreover, a timely response is critical to ensuring high performance in containment tracking tasks, particularly for high-order multi-agent systems operating in dynamic and uncertain environments. To this end, this paper investigates the predefined-time bipartite containment tracking problem for high-order multi-agent systems affected by external disturbances. A robust tracking control scheme is developed based on the backstepping method to ensure that the tracking errors converge to a predefined residual set within a user-specified time. The convergence time is explicitly adjustable through a design parameter, and the proposed scheme effectively avoids the singularities often encountered in conventional predefined-time control approaches. The stability and robustness of the proposed scheme are rigorously established through Lyapunov-based analysis, and extensive simulation results are provided to validate our theoretical findings.

With the increasing deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarms in uncertain and dynamically changing environments, optimal cooperative control has become essential for ensuring robust and efficient system coordination. To this end, this paper designs a data-driven optimal bipartite containment tracking control scheme for multi-UAV systems under compound uncertainties. A novel Dynamic Iteration Regulation Strategy (DIRS) is proposed, which enables real-time adjustment of the learning iteration step according to the task-specific demands. Compared with conventional fixed-step data-driven algorithms, the DIRS provides greater flexibility and computational efficiency, allowing for better trade-offs between the performance and cost. First, the optimal bipartite containment tracking control problem is formulated, and the associated coupled Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equations are established. Then, a data-driven iterative policy learning algorithm equipped with the DIRS is developed to solve the optimal control law online. The stability and convergence of the proposed control scheme are rigorously analyzed. Furthermore, the control law is approximated via the neural network framework without requiring full knowledge of the model. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed DIRS-based optimal containment tracking scheme for multi-UAV systems, which can reduce the number of iterations by 88.27% compared to that for the conventional algorithm.