Fixed-Time Leader-Following Consensus for Multiple Wheeled Mobile Robots

• Published in: IEEE transactions on cybernetics Vol. 50; no. 10; pp. 4381 - 4392
• Main Authors: Ning, Boda, Han, Qing-Long, Lu, Qiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.10.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Directed graphs; fixed-time consensus; formation control; Graph theory; Initial conditions; leader-following consensus; Manifolds; Mobile robots; Nonlinear dynamical systems; Observers; Protocols; Robot control; Robots; Upper bounds; wheeled mobile robots
• ISSN: 2168-2267; 2168-2275; 2168-2275
• DOI: 10.1109/TCYB.2019.2955543

This article deals with the problem of leader-following consensus for multiple wheeled mobile robots. Under a directed graph, a distributed observer is proposed for each follower to estimate the leader state in a fixed time. Based on the observer and a constructed nonlinear manifold, a novel protocol is designed such that the estimated leader state is tracked in a fixed time. Moreover, a switching protocol together with a linear manifold is proposed to ensure that fixed-time leader-following consensus is realized for any initial conditions without causing singularity issues. In contrast to alternative fixed-time consensus protocols in some existing results, the protocol proposed in this article is designed by constructing the nonlinear or linear manifold, which builds a new framework for fixed-time leader-following consensus. Furthermore, the obtained upper bound of settling time is explicitly linked with a single parameter in the protocol, which facilitates the adjustment of the bound under different performance requirements. Finally, the proposed protocol is applied to formation control of wheeled mobile robots.