Dynamic event-triggered consensus tracking control for nonlinear multi-agent systems with actuator failures and unknown dead zones

In this paper, we investigate the problem of dynamic event-triggered consensus tracking control for nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) with actuator failures and unknown dead zones. The MASs involve mismatched unknown parameters, actuator failures, and unknown dead zones, which make the consensus control problem difficult. To this end, by using the bounded estimation method, smoothing function method, and adaptive technique, a distributed adaptive fault-tolerant control (FTC) scheme based on the backstepping technique is designed, which compensates adaptively for effects of actuator failures and unknown dead zones. Moreover, a new dynamic event-triggered control (DETC) strategy is developed to reduce the communication burden in contrast to the existing static event-triggered control. Based on the Lyapunov method, it is shown that the consensus tracking control can be achieved and the Zeno behavior does not occur. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control method is validated through two simulation examples.