Synchronised tracking control for multiple strict-feedback non-linear systems under switching network

This study addresses a synchronised tracking problem for multiple strict-feedback systems with different non-linear functions under a jointly switching directed graph topology. A group with a stationary leader or with a dynamic leader is considered separately and each follower only shares information with its neighbours locally. For the case with each leader, the authors propose each distributed consensus algorithm based on the dynamic surface design to guarantee the consensus between the followers and the leader in any dimensional space where the leader´s velocity and the derivatives of non-linear functions of neighbours are not required to implement the controller even if the order of followers increases. In particular, it is shown from the Lyapunov-based analysis that consensus errors are cooperatively semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded and the consensus tracking is achieved in the presence of the stationary leader under the switching jointly connected interaction network and in the presence of the dynamic leader under the directed switching network.