Distributed performance constraint control for heterogeneous multiagent systems with dynamic event-triggered mechanism

In this paper, distributed event-triggered performance constraint control is proposed for Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems (HMASs) including quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles in the presence of unknown external disturbances. To tackle the problem of different dynamic characteristics and facilitate the controller design, the virtual variable is introduced in the z axis of the nonlinear model of unmanned ground vehicles. By using this approach, a universal model is established for the HMAS. Moreover, a distributed disturbance observer is established to cope with the adverse influence of the external disturbances. Then, an Appointed-Time Prescribed Performance Function (ATPPF) is designed to restrict the tracking error in the predefined regions. On this basis, the distributed performance constraint controller is proposed for the HMAS based on the ATPPF and the distributed disturbance observer. Furthermore, the improved event-triggered mechanism is proposed with a dynamic threshold, which depends on the distance between the tracking error and the boundary of the ATPPF. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control method is verified by the comparative experiments on an HMAS.