Multi-Quadrotor Differential Graphical Containment Game with Noncooperative Active Leaders Subject to External Disturbances

• Published in: IEEE transactions on automatic control pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Cheng, Ming, Liu, Hao, Wen, Guanghui, Lewis, Frank L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2025
• Subjects: Attitude control; containment control; Couplings; differential graphical game; Games; Multi-agent system; Multi-agent systems; Nonlinear dynamical systems; nonlinear system; Quadrotors; Sliding mode control; Sufficient conditions; Training; Vectors
• ISSN: 0018-9286; 1558-2523
• DOI: 10.1109/TAC.2025.3591619

This paper addresses the differential graphical containment game problem involving multi-leaders and multi-followers over directed graphs for nonlinear and coupled quadrotors under external disturbances. The cost function of each quadrotor is constructed by considering the influences of neighboring quadrotors to maximize individual self-interest, and active leaders involving nonzero control inputs are introduced to enhance the maneuverability of the containment system. A sliding mode control method is proposed to attenuate the effects of bounded control inputs, external disturbances of the leaders, and nonlinear couplings from the quadrotor dynamics. Distributed solutions to the containment game considering the worst-case strategies adopted by neighboring quadrotors are given. Theoretical analysis provides the sufficient conditions of uniqueness and existence of the game solution, and the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system can be guaranteed. A case study on the multi-quadrotor differential graphical containment game validates the effectiveness of the proposed method.