Distributed cooperative tracking of multi-agent systems with actuator faults

This paper deals with the fault-tolerant cooperative tracking problem for multi-agent systems with actuator faults. First, the fault-free case is considered. A novel cooperative tracking algorithm is proposed, together with a sufficient condition for the followers to track the leader. Then, based on the proposed cooperative tracking algorithm, a fault-tolerant cooperative tracking algorithm is provided, for multi-agent systems subject to a loss of actuator effectiveness. In this algorithm, an estimator is adopted to estimate the effectiveness rate of each actuator, and effect of actuator loss is compensated for by adjusting a compensate gain in the control law. It is shown that all of the followers can track the leader with ultimately bounded tracking errors, if parameters in the cooperative tracking algorithm are chosen properly. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.