Data-Driven Fully Distributed Fault-Tolerant Consensus Control for Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems: An Observer-Based Approach

This paper introduces a novel observer-based, fully distributed fault-tolerant consensus control algorithm for model-free adaptive control, specifically designed to tackle the consensus problem in nonlinear multi-agent systems. The method addresses the issue of followers lacking direct access to the leader’s state by employing a distributed observer that estimates the leader’s state using only local information from the agents. This transforms the consensus control challenge into multiple independent tracking tasks, where each agent can independently follow the leader’s trajectory. Additionally, an extended state observer based on a data-driven model is utilized to estimate unknown actuator faults, with a particular focus on brake faults. Integrated into the model-free adaptive control framework, this observer enables real-time fault detection and compensation. The proposed algorithm is supported by rigorous theoretical analysis, which ensures the boundedness of both the observer and tracking errors. Simulation results further validate the algorithm’s effectiveness, demonstrating its robustness and practical viability in real-time fault-tolerant control applications.