Distributed Estimator-Based Tracking Control of Multi-Robot Systems

This study addressed two key challenges in the leader-following consensus control of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots: the potential inaccessibility of the leader's state information to followers, and the prolonged time required to achieve consensus. To address these issues, a fixed-time controller based on a distributed estimator was proposed. First, a distributed fixed-time estimator was designed. This enabled each follower to accurately estimate the unmeasurable state of the leader within a fixed time, with an upper bound independent of the initial estimation errors. Subsequently, utilizing matrix analysis theory and the backstepping method, a fixed-time controller was developed for the system, effectively achieving state synchronization for a group of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots within a fixed time. Finally, numerical simulation results validated the overall effectiveness of the proposed approach.