Distributed Bipartite Containment Control for Non‐Linear Multi‐Agent Systems via Completely Discrete Event‐Triggered Protocols

ABSTRACT This article solves the bipartite containment control (BCC) problem of non‐linear multi‐agent systems (MASs) under directed signed graphs through adaptive technology and dynamic event‐triggered mechanism (DETM). A distributed BCC protocol, consisting of an adaptive controller and a Zeno‐free completely discrete DETM, is proposed, where the threshold of the triggering function can be dynamically adjusted. Different from existing related results, it mainly has three advantages, namely, intermittent communication among neighboring agents, discrete controller updates for each agent, and fewer triggering numbers compared to static mechanisms. These advantages demonstrate that both communication frequency and computing cost can be reduced. Furthermore, the designed fully distributed controller can achieve BCC consensus for non‐linear MASs without involving any global information of the network topology. Finally, three numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed protocol.