Predefined‐Time Scaled Containment Control for Nonlinear Multi‐Agent Systems With Prescribed Performance Guarantees

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the practical predefined‐time (PT) scaled containment control (SCC) problem for multi‐agent systems (MASs) subject to unknown nonlinear dynamics and external disturbances. The theoretical framework begins with the presentation of a practical PT stability criterion and the formal definition of SCC. Prescribed performance control (PPC) is adopted to constrain the scaled containment errors within pre‐specified bounds. To mitigate the computational complexity inherent in traditional backstepping, a practical PT command filter is designed. A distributed control scheme is then constructed by synthesizing PT control methods, the command‐filtered backstepping framework, and neural networks (NNs) approximation techniques. The proposed scheme ensures the achievement of practical PT SCC, keeps the scaled containment errors within prescribed performance limits, guarantees the boundedness of all closed‐loop signals, and drives all errors into a small residual set within the PT. Numerical simulations on a multi‐ship system validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.