Practical Fixed-time Intermittent Distributed Observer Design for Leader-follower Formation

In this paper, a distributed leader-follower observer is designed by employing aperiodic intermittent control (AIC). Considering the limitations of communication resources in practical systems, it is often the case that not all followers can directly acquire information from the leader. To address this challenge, the proposed distributed observer leverages neighbor information to estimate and provide each follower with the necessary information about the leader. This approach ensures that even under conditions where direct communication with the leader is restricted, followers can still effectively track the leader’s behavior. The introduction of AIC enables the observer to achieve convergence of observation errors within a fixed time, under the condition of intermittent observation. Ultimately, the viability of this theory is confirmed through a simulation of a strongly connected directed graph.