Distributed Time‐Varying Formation Tracking Control for High‐Order Nonlinear Multi‐Agent Systems With Switching Communication Topologies

The time‐varying formation tracking control problem in the context of switching communication topologies for nonlinear multi‐agent systems (MASs) containing matched nonlinear terms is researched in this paper. For the purpose of eliminating the nonlinear characteristic, this paper uses the one‐sided Lipschitz condition, which is more general compared with the traditional Lipschitz condition. An edge‐based distributed control protocol is proposed to address the reliance on global information in MASs. It only uses local relative information feedback between agents without the need for global state information and enhances the scalability and flexibility of the system. In addition, Lyapunov theory is employed to prove the stability of the system. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach in nonlinear MASs with time‐varying formations is demonstrated by simulation.