Data‐Driven Distributed Tracking Control for Unknown MIMO Multi‐Agent Systems With Multi‐Node Transmission Strategy

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the consensus tracking problem for multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) nonlinear multi‐agent systems (MASs) subject to communication bandwidth limitations and external disturbances. To accommodate the communication bandwidth constraints while ensuring system performance, a multi‐node weight try‐once‐discard (WTOD) transmission protocol is proposed. Distinct from the traditional WTOD protocols that only permit the transmission of the component with the maximum error, the proposed multi‐node WTOD protocol introduces two dynamic thresholds to flexibly adjust the number of transmitted components, thereby the flexibility and efficiency of communication resource allocation are significantly improved. Corresponding to the proposed transmission protocol, a novel model‐free adaptive discrete integral terminal sliding mode method is further proposed to enhance tracking performance and disturbance rejection capability. Based on the compact‐form dynamic linearization (CFDL) data‐driven model, the proposed method integrates the discrete integral terminal sliding mode method into the model‐free adaptive control (MFAC) framework, and a disturbance estimation scheme is incorporated to effectively approximate and compensate for slow‐varying unknown external disturbances. Finally, extensive simulation results on MIMO nonlinear MASs are presented to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed multi‐node transmission protocol and data‐driven control method.