Consensus Sliding Mode Control for Multi-Agent Systems Considering Communication Delays and Uncertainties

In recent years, multi-agent systems have been gar-nering increasing attention due to their wide-ranging applications in robotics, autonomous transportation, and search and rescue missions. One of the key challenges in these systems is achieving effective cooperative control, which involves designing control protocols that allow agents to communicate and work together to accomplish common objectives. In most real-world scenarios, the dynamic systems of agents are nonlinear and uncertain. Fur-thermore, communication between agents is often impacted by delays, adding complexity to the coordination process. This paper addresses these challenges by proposing a distributed cooperative sliding mode controller designed to achieve consensus within a multi-agent system comprising a leader and several followers. The controller ensures that the local tracking error for each agent converges to zero, even in the presence of communication delays and system uncertainties. Through a distributed leader-follower-based cooperative control framework, the design allows each agent to synchronize its states with the leader and neighboring agents effectively. The proposed approach offers a robust solution to the nonlinear dynamics, uncertainties, and delays inherent in multi -agent systems.