Event-triggered sliding mode based consensus tracking in second order heterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems

Abstract This work targets the problem of leader following consensus in heterogeneous multi-agent systems described by second order nonlinear dynamics. The controller proposed in the study is an event-based sliding mode controller. Synthesis of the controller has been partitioned into two parts– a finite time consensus problem and an event-based control mechanism. In the first part, the leader following heterogeneous multi-agents of second order having inherent nonlinear dynamics have been addressed and a novel sliding mode reaching law based on inverse sine hyperbolic function has been designed to drive the agents towards consensus. In the second part, an event-based implementation of the control law has been incorporated to minimize computational load on the computational device equipped with the agents and reduce energy expenditure. The triggering rule proposed in this work is dynamic and taking samples respecting this rule ascertains that the desired closed-loop performance of the system is not compromised while exhibiting robustness and high efficacy. The advantage of using such a scheme, i.e., an event-based sliding mode controller is rooted in the robustness capabilities of sliding mode controller and reducing computational expenses via event-based mechanisms. Numerical simulations and mathematical foundations confirm the effectuality of the controller proposed in this study.