Logic-based distributed switching control for agents in power-chained form with multiple unknown control directions

This work studies logic-based distributed switching control for nonlinear agents in power-chained form, where logic-based (switching) control arises from the online estimation of the control directions assumed to be unknown for all agents. Compared to the state-of-the-art logic-based mechanisms, the challenge of power-chained dynamics is that in general asymptotic tracking cannot be obtained, even for a single agent. To address this challenge, a new logic-based mechanism is proposed, which is orchestrated by a dynamic boundary function. The boundary function is decreasing in-between switching instants and monotonically increasing at the switching instants, depending on the jumps of an appropriately designed Lyapunov-like function. To remove chattering (i.e. two or more switching instants occurring consecutively with zero dwell time), a dynamic threshold is proposed, based on selecting the maximum values of the Lyapunov-like function before and after switching.