Distributed observer-based containment control for unknown time-varying P-normal nonlinear multiagent systems

This work investigates the containment control for unknown time-varying p-normal (TVP) nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) under directed topology. First, by innovatively constructing the dynamic update law in the distributed observer design process, the corresponding virtual leader trajectory can be accurately estimated at an exponential rate. Subsequently, the containment problem of MASs is transformed into a tracking problem through appropriate state transformation. Then, based on backstepping and power integrator techniques, a recursive algorithm is proposed to construct the adaptive controller to guarantee that the followers are driven into the convex hull consisting of dynamic leaders and the closed-loop system is stable. Finally, the effectiveness of the containment control scheme is verified through a numerical simulation and a practical example of single-link manipulators.