Containment Control for Non‐Linear Multi‐Agent Systems Under Distributed Event‐Triggering Intermittent Schemes

ABSTRACT This research investigates the global and exponential leader‐following consensus issue in multi‐agent systems (MASs) that possess nonlinear dynamics, state time‐varying delay, and communication time‐varying delay. It focuses on the consensus scenarios with a single leader and multiple leaders, respectively. An effective distributed intermittent control strategy based on tracking error at control instant is proposed in order to realize the consensus. A novel approach is developed to automatically design the intermittent control sequences by utilizing an event‐triggered mechanism (ETM) with a predetermined detection period. Sufficient criteria are obtained through the utilization of the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, general inequalities based on free matrices, the extended Halanay inequality, as well as mathematical induction. Ultimately, two numerical simulations are exploited to prove the effectiveness and validity of the main findings.